DarleneCrossover: 5More things to tell
by Hardwing
Summary: While Darlene and her children get closer to the clan, Demona has something to surprise them... or will she get surprised?
1. News

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I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES for creating such a great background and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas and for the characters of his ficverse.

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5.More things to tell

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07.08.98; 2:12; Demona's Mansion:

Demona sat in her working chamber and studied a magic book that she had just recently purchased in Germany, but hadn't had the time to really read. Meanwhile, Shade sat by her master's feet-claws and daydreamed, satisfied that her friend had been out with her tonight already.

Demona was satisfied also, since over the last few nights she had had time to rest and to come along with herself. Mainly because Darlene and Jarred had been away over most of the last nights, Darlene had even managed to take Lana with them, even when she had nearly had to drag her by her tail.

Even though a part of her had somehow relished to having them around her, they even so could be stressing sometimes, especially since Jarred seemed eager to show his whole family what he had learned during his lessons with the other hatchlings.

This had taught her to relieve in the silence when she was alone... Well, Lana was still there, up in her room and watching over Gem, but since she preferred to listen to music or surf the Internet, she didn't really count.

_Time to get used to this again_ Demona thought _soon I will have even more silence_.

The greatest part of her soul stayed unmoved by this thought, just a little part shuddered by this, but Demona controlled this part and concentrated on the magic book again.

But Demona didn't get enough time to really concentrate on the book again, since some minutes later; Shade rose from the ground, looking in the direction of the main-living room. One minute later, Demona's keen ears registered how the balcony-door opened.

"Darlene?" she asked. "Jarred?"

She knew it was pointless to ask since no one of the clan, not even Angela, had come in the last week to visit her... well, with one exception.

"We are here." her daughter's voice informed her while Demona closed the book, standing up from her chair.

Just at the moment, when his grandmother come out from behind the desk, Jarred stormed in, holding a wooden sword in front of him.

"Ha!" he told her laughing, playfully threatening Demona by making a parade in front of her.

Demona crossed her arms. She had faced many opponents and this one was definitely at the weak end of the scale.

"And what is this?" she asked in a tone, which made clear that she didn't share her grandson's enthusiasm.

"Deborah gave me this to practice." Jarred explained to his granny with a mischievous smile on his face. "She said I'm making great progress."

Demona raised a brow. She had training-swords too and knew her old teacher had guessed this, but before she could say anything to this, Darlene entered and a look in her daughter's eyes showed her that maybe it was better to simply let it be.

"This is..." Demona began in a neutral voice, unsure what to say, "…nice."

"Yeah, it's cool." Jarred explained grinning. "I'll go up and show it to Lana."

Demona looked after Jarred, how the hyperactive hatchling jumped up the stairs and Shade, who was bored of doing nothing, decided to follow him slowly.

"He really likes training and being with the other hatchlings." Darlene told her mother. "And I never saw him so willing to actually learn something... except for magic by you."

Demona nodded, leaning against the desk.

"Yes, Deborah is a good teacher..." noticing the surprised looks of her daughter and cursing herself for this, she added. "Is there anything new there?"

Darlene, who did not look upon the change in the topic as completely unfavorable, crossed her arms.

"Well, you would know if you came with me just once in the last week." Darlene noticed. "But yes, there are some of the clan who miss your presence, Angela for one, not to speak of Connor and your other 'rookery children'... What should I tell them the next time when they ask me why you didn't come? That you're sick?"

Demona crossed her arms.

"I doubt that you are waylaid by masses that demand my presence there, daughter." she told her daughter calmly. "You know what the mass of the clan thinks of me."

"Then change this by visiting them!" Darlene demanded. "This is the best way to better your reputation."

"I am not interested in what the Manhattan clan thinks of me." Demona replied and was going to continue when her daughter made something near a snarl.

"It is **your** clan mother!" Darlene told her mother angrily, having to control her voice so that her children didn't hear them. "The clan you hatched in and the clan you led once, mother."

Demona countered her daughter's attack with an icy glare.

"Yes, once Darlene, not now." she reminded her. "We don't get along, Darlene, not for a long time."

"Well, you have to if you plan to stay in New York." Darlene reminded her, crossing her arms like her mother, to make her point clear

"I don't plan to do so." her mother revealed.

Baff

Darlene's arms dropped, along with her jaw, she felt as if she had been beaten.

"You can't be serious!" she noticed unbelieving.

Demona's face stayed hard.

"I am," she replied calmly. "In two weeks, I will go back to Berlin... It was just a business-trip like I told you."

Darlene's blue eyes studied her mother, still searching for any sign that she was making a joke.

"I don't want to go away!" she told her mother angrily. "Neither does Jarred and… neither does Lana."

Demona simply shrugged her shoulder's.

"I haven't said a single word about you and your children coming with me, Darlene." she informed her daughter.

Baff

Darlene felt the second beat, near being knocked out.

"What?" she nearly whispered, looking into the cold green eyes of the gargess in front of her?

"You told me already that you felt alone by being just with me," Demona said, reminding her daughter of the first talk they had had six months ago, "that I am not enough and I don't think your children see this otherwise. So the best thing is that you and your family stay here."

Baff

_Okay, I'm K.O._ Darlene thought unbelieving.

"Why?" Darlene asked weakly.

"It is obvious," Demona noted. "I don't fit in here, like you surely have noticed."

Darlene was definitely **not** going to accept this.

"Then change yourself!" she demanded from her mother, barely suppressing her anger.

Demona shook her head.

"I am the way I am, daughter." she replied. "You know this."

For some seconds, Darlene could just stare on her mother, wanting to get absolutely sure that she meant what she had said.

"Do you want to tell me that your goddamned stubbornness and your idiotic pride mean more to you than we?" Darlene asked disbelieving. "Are you mad?"

Darlene realized too late that maybe, on some questions, she didn't want an answer.

"Have you thought just once about me or Angela, or Connor? Or Jarred and Lana???" she demanded to know while Demona stayed cool.

"You have proven that you came along well by yourself, Darlene." Demona pointed out. "As has Angela, and Connor has more rookery mothers than me and your children will get over it."

The coldness in her mother's voice made Darlene even more angry.

"My children, your grandchildren, **love** you!" she snarled, not caring for who might listen on that. "As do I, Angela and Connor, for reasons I cannot begin to guess."

Darlene pointed with a single claw on her mother.

"Just think of Jarred!" she tried. "He relies on you to teach him how to become a sorcerer!"

"I thought of him." Demona replied. "I will lend you some magic books and other useful tools here. You can teach him as good as I can."

"**YOU THOUGHT OF HIM?!**" Darlene screamed, her eyes turning red and when she continued, her voice was as icy as her mothers. "No, mother. You think of nobody other than yourself and I was a fool to think otherwise at any time."

Since Demona didn't respond, but merely looked on her daughter icily, Darlene continued.

"But you were always so selfish, weren't you mother?" Darlene noted. "The only reason why you have taken me and the children with you was that you wanted company, nothing else, and now you have had seemingly enough of us and decided to drop us."

Demona's eyes began shining red now.

"I took you with me because the situation here was still... unstable." she told her daughter. "But this has changed and so there is no reason for this anymore."

"So this is your pretext now." Darlene noticed sarcastically "What will it be next time, mother?"

Demona didn't reply anything, but held her arms crossed, looking almost defiantly on her daughter.

"Oh, and what will you tell Angela?" Darlene asked. "Or more accurately… when? Maybe one hour before or after you pack your bags?"

"In time, Darlene." Demona explained, the hellfire banned out of her eyes again. "Let this be my problem."

With this, Demona went back to her chair and sat in it, but before she could revive, Darlene began to speak anew.

"Then you might have one problem less, mother." Darlene noticed and on the surprised look of her mother, she continued. "I made an invitation to anyone who wanted to visit us tomorrow night to dinner. Angela and your caramel skinned sister agreed..."

"WHAT?!" Demona screamed, raising up again. "How dare you… "

"Don't worry, mother," Darlene replied coolly. "You'll have no work since I'll cook."

"I won't speak about this!" Demona snarled. "You have to inform me before you invite someone into **my** house."

_Your house, mother?_ Darlene thought cynically while clenching her claws to fists. _I once dared to believe it would be ours. _

"If I would have asked you, you would have either said no, or found a reason for not being here." Darlene replied, her blue eyes cold as ice.

Mother and daughter looked in each other's eyes and didn't even blink for some seconds until Demona finally shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll be there." she explained, as if this would be natural. "Why not?"

_I'm asking this myself, mother_. Darlene thought, but kept silent since she didn't want to loose this little victory she had achieved over her mother.

Her mother did not say anything more, but once again took up the book she had stopped reading when her daughter had come in.

Darlene understood the message clearly, but decided to add a point.

"I won't tell Jarred or Lana about your plans, mother." she told her. "You'll have to do this by yourself. I hope you'll see how much pain you cause them."

Demona showed no reaction and instead opened the book, continuing to read where she had stopped.

"Damn you, mother." Darlene snarled and turned around, heading up to the stairs.

With this, Demona's daughter left, leaving her mother seemingly reading in the book she held in one claw... while the other scraped wood from the very expensive desk.

****

07.08.98; 2:23; Demona's Mansion, Lana's room:

Lana sat in her chair, the Walkman about her ears, and surfed through the net on the PC in front of her. She had put the music on a lower level since, thanks to her new pointed ears, she had much better hearing.

_Pointed ears!_ She thought depressed. _God I'm a freak_.

She didn't understand how Jarred could enjoy this, not to speak of her mother.

Gem seemingly even so didn't mind the new body since she played happily with the ball in her playpen, being unusually satisfied with just sitting in this little cage.

__

At least all is quiet. Lana thought happily _ Thank God that Jarred is out with mom training... _

She didn't get to end her thoughts since at this moment, the door to her room burst open.

"HA!" a very excited hatchling screamed when he stormed in and playfully held his sword, as though he was going to attack his sister. "Surrender mighty dragon!"

Lana had been, much to her anger, a bit scared in the first few seconds, turned off the Walkman and glared on her younger brother.

_What would I give on being an only child_. She thought.

"You wouldn't even win against a bat, shrimp!" Lana pointed out.

"But one day I will!" Jarred declared proudly. "Deborah said I learn very fast."

Lana just shrugged her shoulders.

"If you like playing warrior..." she replied.

"It is not playing!" Jarred told her angrily. "One day I will be a true warrior and fighting bad guys..." he got an idea. "Hey, I can even protect you then!"

Lana giggled by this thought.

"I feel much safer already." she replied.

"You'll see," Jarred, challenged by his sister's laughter, explained and rose his wooden sword over his head. "If someone attacks us, I..."

He didn't come further since someone grabbed the dull blade of the sword, too weakly held by the hatchling, and pulled it out of Jarred's claw.

In shock, the hatchling turned around... finding Shade sitting on the ground, his cherished sword in her mouth.

Shade looked up to the hatchling. She had never been very keen in playing with hatchlings and couldn't understand how other gargbeasts could spend the whole night in doing so, but playing with this one was definitely better than just sitting around.

Her eyes showed that she was happy about showing the wanna-be warrior, who was the best fighter in the room.

"Hey, give that back!" Jarred demanded angrily, grabbing the sword's handle with both claws and trying to take it back. "This is no fun!"

Gem watched this nice game curiously in her playpen, absently chewing on a dice.

Finally, Shade had enough of the game and gave in, letting Jarred, who wasn't prepared on that, fall down on his back.

"Good going, knight." Lana giggled and even Gem laughed up, applauding with her little claws.

Jarred was going to say something when the three children saw their mother storming past the door without even looking in. This was something that Jarred and Lana was thankful for, since none of them wanted to get in the focus of these eyes now.

"Uhh, what made mom get up so?" Jarred asked his sister while standing up and checking his sword for any signs of Shade's teeth, luckily finding none... Deborah made clear that she wanted him to take care of this sword and he definitely didn't want to disappoint her.

"She and grandma had an argument I guess." Lana told him, not really interested in this, as long as she wouldn't get in trouble because of it.

"About what?" Jarred asked, starring on her.

"Can I read minds, shrimp?" Lana asked him irritated. "About any stuff I thing, maybe because of the clan."

Jarred looked worriedly on his sister. He didn't want his mother and his grandmother to be angry on each other... They were family!

But finally the hatchling shrugged his shoulders.

_Probably nothing_. He guessed.

****

07.08.98; 2:41; Demona's Mansion, Darlene's room:

Darlene had to control herself not to scream when she had entered her room and had slammed the door behind herself.

_Mother you are such a... such a... _ she lacked the words to describe her.

Her mother seemingly cared not a bit for her feelings, not just Jarred's. By the dragon she had believed that her mother actually had learned to care for her grandson and Jarred believed so too and now...

"Damn you!" Darlene cursed, remembering all the others that her mother would bring pain by moving away again.

Was her mother truly so heartless?

Slowly, a part of the anger vanished out of Darlene's heart.

No, she didn't believe so, but maybe, she thought that they didn't care for her enough or that they weren't giving her a reason to stay. She hoped Angela and her mother's caramel skinned sister, whom she had been seemingly close to, could show her otherwise.

Then another thought passed Darlene's brain.

"You're not the only one who can surprise, mother!" she whispered and allowed herself a little smile.


	2. Invitations

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07.08.98; 22:36; Demona's Mansion:

Demona sat in her comfortable chair in the living room, reading the daily newspaper and waited. Shade sat at her feet, slightly depressed since she smelt the scent of a well tasting goose, roasting in the kitchen, but was banned out of the kitchen by Darlene.

Gem sat in her playpen, where she had to sit in much too often, and looked around, still feeling not restless enough to complain or to break out, but restless enough for not finding any fun in playing with her toys anymore

Finally the waiting ended for all three, since Shade lifted her head and one-second later, there was a knock on the glass-door to the veranda.

Demona looked up, seeing her daughter and her sister standing at the other side of the door and raised her claw, beckoning them to come in.

This was the moment when she heard someone coming... or better yet, racing from the upper level.

"**MOM, THEY ARE HERE!**" Jarred screamed from the staircase and let his grandmother guess that the whole neighborhood knew it by now.

Jarred arrived at the door even before his grandmother, making Demona asking herself when she had to renew the floor from the hatchlings feet-claws... Of course, then again, this was nothing she had to worry about.

"Thank you." Angela told her nephew when he had opened the door, letting her and her aunt in.

"Very gallant." Desdemona praised the hatchling, making Jarred smile.

"Daughter, sister." Demona greeted, coming nearer.

"Mother." Angela replied smiling, embracing the surprised ancient gargoyle. "Good to see you."

"Yes, it has been too long." Desdemona commented. "Some believe already that you don't want to come to the castle ever again."

_And most are happy about this_. Desdemona added in thought but decided it better to let it be unspoken, guessing that her sister knew this by herself.

Demona commented this by shrugging her shoulders.

"I had a lot of work to do for Nightsone," she began, "and..."

She never got the possibility to finish this sentence, since at this moment Darlene entered the room, still wearing a glove on one of her claws.

"Hello." she greeted the newly arrived. "Good that you're here finally."

With this, she embraced first her half-sister and then Desdemona.

"The roasted goose is nearly ready, Lana is still in the kitchen looking after it." Darlene explained, looking to her aunt. "Mother told me that you like goose."

"Like it?" Desdemona asked unbelieving. "I love it!"

Smiling, she turned to Demona.

"You haven't forgotten." she noticed.

"Yes," Demona told her nodding, slightly embarrassed by the gratitude in her sister's voice. "You never could resist it."

Before her sister could reply, Gem made clear that she was still there by making complaining screams, which were near crying, leading Darlene to the playpen to take up her youngest child.

"Hey, it is okay," Darlene calmed the infant down. "Do you want to greet our guests?"

Gem definitely wanted so, since the moment she had been lifted near an eye level to the visitors, she stopped complaining and started to reach with her little arms after Angela.

"Can you hold her?" Darlene asked her half sister. "I have to go back into the kitchen to help Lana serve the meal."

Angela nodded, smiling and took the infant, who had learned to trust this grown up and so giggled when her aunt tickled her sensitive belly.

Half the way to the kitchen, Darlene turned around again.

"Meanwhile you can tell our guests and Jarred your news, mother." Darlene suggested and her calm voice barely hid the hardness in it.

Desdemona, Angela and Jarred turned surprised first to Darlene and then to the immortal, but both eyes stayed cool.

"After the meal, Darlene." Demona replied and shot an icy glare to her biologically eldest child.

"What news, granny?" Jarred asked Demona when his mother had vanished out of the door.

"You will hear it." Demona replied calmly, realizing maybe for the first time how much it would hurt Jarred.

"Good news?" Angela asked.

The immortal simply shrugged her shoulders, which made Angela and Desdemona sigh in union. They would have to work with Demona on her diplomatic skills some time.

"Have I shown you my sword already?" Jarred asked the guests, which led them both to shake their heads. "Deborah gave it to me for practicing... Do you want to see it?"

Desdemona and Angela looked to each other, unsure at first, but then the glittering in the hatchlings eyes convinced them.

"Sure." Desdemona replied with a slight smile.

Jarred grinned and raced up the way to his room.

"He seems to like his sword a lot." Desdemona noticed while she sat down on the couch.

"Yes." Demona agreed. "I noticed that when he held the sword at morning, and turned to stone... it turned to stone with him."

"And?" Angela asked, who sat down on the couch beside Desdemona.

Demona looked surprised on her daughter, but then remembered who had raised her.

"Do you know why our clothes turn to stone during the day?" she asked her daughter, forgetting the fact that she didn't turn to stone anymore.

Angela simply shrugged her shoulders.

"A biological process?" she guessed.

"No," Demona explained. "When our bodies turn to stone, it is biological, but our clothes turn to stone by magic."

"Magic?" Angela replied surprised.

"Yes," Desdemona agreed "according to the tales of our clan, the clothes we wore were destroyed when we turned back into flesh. This was until a Roman king, who met our kind, ordered his sorcerer, the first Magus, to cast a spell on our whole race to let things turn to stone with us if we wear them.... Provided that we own them."

Angela nodded; this sounded understandable, even though it sounded weird.

"And before?" she asked.

"Since it would require too much time to create new clothes every night, our race was naked." Demona replied coolly, slightly amused at how her daughter's cheeks turned red.

Gem had meanwhile freed herself of her aunt's arms and crawled on the couch into the direction of Desdemona, who smiled and took up the hatchling.

"The meal is ready." Darlene told them, looking in from the other room.

****

08.08.98; 00:41; Demona's Mansion, Dining Room:

The meal tasted well, which was a common agreement among the ones sitting on the table. Jarred had placed his sword in the corner, after showing it, and Angela and Desdemona were now busy playing a bit with Gem in her high chair.

Darlene meanwhile talked with Desdemona and Angela about anything, which was necessary since these three were practically the only ones who talked. Finally, after a short but hard look from her mother, Lana decided to say something, especially when she remembered the chores her mother had threatened her with if she would remain silent the whole evening.

"Why are your husb..." she hesitated, remembering that this was not the word that gargoyles used, "…your mates not here?"

This led to Angela looking embarrassed for a second, as well as with Desdemona.

_Great_, Lana thought when she noticed the slight glare of her mother. _Chores, here I come_.

"Broadway has to cook." Angela explained, avoiding her mother's eyes. "Since father made him the official cook of the clan, he has had plenty of work to do every night."

"And my mate wanted to speak with Bluestone about a possible place in the police program." Desdemona explained, looking to Lana with a smile, which was as false as the excuse.

Demona just eyed her guests calmly. She knew they lied. Gargoyles, with exceptions, weren't very used to lying, these ones especially. But it didn't matter for Demona that Broadway and her brother avoided her.

In the end she thought it was even better, since Darlene wouldn't have been able to cook enough for this mass, especially for Broadway. Jarred's hunger was close to rivaling Broadway's and Darlene had been very hungry too, especially tonight which didn't escape Demona's attention.

"What about your siblings on Avalon?" Darlene asked, trying to get over this. "How did they react when they learned that the clan is alive again?"

"They were totally surprised." Angela replied. "Some even came to visit us, but it was nothing lasting... In the end we decided to see my siblings on Avalon, as a clan on their own, even when some in the clan didn't agree to this."

"I heard tales of it." Jarred noted. "Is it true that fairies live on it?"

"Oh, come on." Lana snorted before Angela could answer. "Next thing you'll be asking her will be if King Arthur lays there sleeping until he is needed."

"Well..." Angela began swallowing, looking on her niece with a slight smile. "Recently there have been Fay living on Avalon again, but King Arthur is awake and on a quest to find Merlin."

This made Lana's jaw drop down, while Jarred grinned superior on her.

"I will move back to Berlin in two weeks." Demona suddenly said, using the silence.

Now, all eyes including Gem's and Shade's were directed on her.

_Wonderful, mom,_ Darlene thought cynically. _Now I know where Lana has her great diplomatic abilities from._

Angela was the first who regained her voice.

"What?" she asked her unbelieving.

Demona shrugged her shoulders, unimpressed by her daughter's shock.

"I never planned to stay here for long." she told them. "I just had to regulate my business with the clan. Such I have done so and now there is no reason to stay."

The whole table, except Darlene who held a cold face, looked unbelieving on the immortal.

"I don't want to go away." Jarred told both his mother and his grandmother.

"We're not moving away." Darlene explained to her son with an unmoved voice, never letting her mother out of her eyes. "Just your grandmother is."

This made Jarred to look unbelieving on his grandmother. "This isn't true... " The hatchling said, but Demona shook her head.

"It is, Jarred." she told the hatchling, looking into his brown eyes for just the touch of a second. "I don't belong here."

"You do." Desdemona protested. "Sister, your clan is here, your family..."

Demona just shook her head.

"It hasn't been my clan for already over 1000 years." she explained. "And I don't plan to start this up... especially since there are no foundations."

"Mother," Angela exclaimed, "sure, we have different... opinions, but we will find a way to live together... We have to!"

"No," Demona replied determined, studying her daughter with unreadable eyes. "I have..."

The immortal didn't say anything further, since Jarred jumped up, letting the chair fall down, and ran off in the direction of the stairs and leaving the remaining silence.

"Jarred." Darlene called after his son, but he didn't hear... didn't 'want' to hear.

Worried, since she had seen the tears in her son's eyes, Darlene was going to stand up and go after him, but her mother stopped her.

"No." Demona ordered while she stood up and walked around the table. "I will clear this up with him."

With this, the immortal walked off, following her grandson up the stairs and leaving the speechless gargoyles, including a worried gargbeast, alone.

"She can't be serious." Angela finally asked.

"She is." Darlene replied.

She had taken Gem from her high chair since the infant had sensed that something was wrong and had begun to cry.

"I have talked with her already." Darlene told the three gargesses in front of her, including her eldest daughter while she tried to calm Gem down. "She **is** serious and I doubt that anyone can talk her out of this... Mother is too stubborn."

"But this makes no sense!" Angela told her sister, as if she had to convince her. "Why should she go now?! Everything is going so well!"

"It is not going well, Angela," Desdemona corrected her. "Sure, it might be a little better now, but many in the clan still hate her... and many might do forever."

The caramel-skinned gargess swallowed, unsure if she should say anything more, but then she decided for it, even when Lana was sitting at the table.

"Last time my sister was with the clan, when you were away, an elder accused her because of the massacre." she explained. "I think this might have led to a fight if Goliath had not intervened."

The blood partly dropped out of Angela's face, but her biological older sister stayed unimpressed.

"Mother wouldn't hide herself from a confrontation." Darlene noticed. "I think she might have other reasons."

Slowly Lana, who had stayed a bit shocked since the revelation, came back to life, when a terrible thought crossed her mind.

"But we can stay here?" she asked her mother. "I mean in this mansion."

"Sure, your grandmother would allow this and even give us more than enough money to come along." Darlene replied and calmed her daughter down. "But I think it is more secure to move in the castle."

Lana stared on her mother, remembering the gargoyles that were definitely much too interested in her and imagining how to have them around from dusk till dawn.

She had to convince her grandmother to stay!!!

****

08.08.98; 01:16; Roof of Demona's Mansion:

  
  
Demona slowly walked through the door, entering the roof which was illuminated from the moon and seeing her grandson crouching in the shadow of the large satellite dish.

The immortal closed the door behind her, loud enough so that even a human could hear it and her Jarred had much keener ears now.

Jarred turned his head shortly, but from the look in his tearful eyes, Demona knew that he had expected his mother and not her. When he turned to look again on the city, outside the walls of her mansion, it seemed as if he was going to jump up and glide away, but somehow he held himself back.

Demona slowly walked to him, thinking about the right words to calm her grandson down.

"Jarred," she began, "I'm sorry..."

"No, you're not." Jarred told her angrily. "If you were, you would stay."

He stopped and Demona used this break to slowly come nearer to him until she kneeled down beside of him.

"You have to understand that I can't stay here, Jarred." Demona told the hatchling.

"Because we are human..." Jarred noted, now with tears running down his cheeks. "Too human for you..."

Demona had to suppress a gasp, from these words from her grandson, which indeed hit her.

"Who said this?" Demona demanded to know.

"You..." Jarred replied, and when he saw the surprised look on his grandmother's face he added. "I mean..."

He sighed, as he looked on his claw, a claw with five talons, not four like a 'normal' gargoyle would have and Demona began to understand.

"We are not true gargoyles and so you don't want us." he continued sadly.

"No," Demona replied uncommonly soft, placing a claw on his shoulder. "Jarred, for the last time, I don't see you as a human, I never have and never will."

She swallowed, knowing that this was not completely true, but when her grandson looked into her eyes, she continued.

"This," Demona said and softly took her grandson's claw in her own, "doesn't matter." she looked in his brown eyes. "It is your soul, which makes you a gargoyle and even if you would be human now... It wouldn't change what I feel for you."

Jarred stayed skeptical and removed his claw out of hers.

"Then why do you want to go?" he asked her. "Why do you want to leave us?"

"I don't fit in here, Jarred." the immortal explained. "I and the clan don't get along."

"Because of the humans?" Jarred noticed.

Demona shook her head. It was naturally the main reason, but she couldn't tell this to her grandson.

"The humans are one reason, but there are others." she began and when the immortal saw her grandson looking up to her, she stared ahead of herself.

"Which then?" Jarred asked surprised.

Demona swallowed, she didn't know how she could explain this.

"Jarred, what has Deborah told you in your first lesson?" she began.

"Well..." Jarred swallowed, "that we protect, that this is our nature and our purpose."

"And?" Demona asked him, nodding slightly since she had known that this would be the very first thing her old teacher would have taught Jarred.

"Well… and that we have to fight with honor." Jarred continued. "That we have to watch out for each other and the weak..."

"Yes." Demona told him. "This is what for her, for the clan, a gargoyle should be... but it is not as what I define myself."

"But..." Jarred began, "you wouldn't have to leave us. Maybe you could live outside the clan somehow."

Demona sighed.

"Maybe." she lied. "But even then, there would still be many reasons not to stay."

On the questioning look in her grandson's eyes, she added

"Reasons I don't want to speak about." she explained, now in an unusual soft voice. "Jarred, all I want is to ask you to trust me that I do the best. Will you do this?"

Jarred looked on his grandma, still doubting, but finally his trust in her overcame his worry and since he wasn't the reason.

"I will." he swore, even when his voice had more than a hint of sadness in it. "But please stay until I have become an adult!"

Demona looked on him, remembering shortly her own ceremony at this time.

"I can't." she told him and added at once. "But I will be there when you ascend with the others, as CEO I can choose when to take my vacation time."

"You promise?" Jarred asked and the happiness in his voice made Demona shudder.

"I promise that I will do what is in my power to try." she told him, cautious of promising anything and laid a claw on his shoulder. "So I will do so."

Jarred looked first on the claw and then on his grandmother, giving her a weak smile.

She would go, but this wasn't forever so there was no real reason to be sad, wasn't there?

"Come, let's go back down." Demona told her grandson, standing up, her face now having a cool manner and Jarred nodded.

****

08.08.98; 01:23; Demona's Mansion, dinning room:

"We have to make grandmother stay!" Lana exclaimed, near of a panic.

The three other gargesses looked surprised on her by this urgent request and finally, Desdemona shrugged her shoulders.

"But how?" she asked.

"Maybe we should simply show her how much she means to us." Angela suggested. "To us and to the hatchlings at least. She is their rookery mother and Connor..." she stopped at the last moment, looking to her niece who according to her mother, definitely should not learn of who Connor's mother was, "…will miss her most of all."

Darlene nodded, knowing what her sister had wanted to say and meanwhile Gem, who had grown restless again, sat on the floor in front of Shade.

"I doubt this, but we have to try." she explained "Best tomorrow night after dinner."

"Tomorrow night?" Lana asked her mother surprised.

Darlene nodded.

"We planned to ask your mother to come to a dinner with the clan in return, tomorrow." she explained, exchanging a special look with Angela and Desdemona by this. "Maybe there we can change her mind."

Gem, unseen by the grown-ups, meanwhile had managed to climb on Shade, sitting happily on the patient beast that had placed her head between her claws.

_God I hope so._ Lana thought, finding the possibility it even worth to be with the clan for a night.

"But if not?" she asked.

"Well, there is still a cell down in the dungeon here." Darlene said smiling, despite this evening, slightly amused by the look in her daughter's face.

_She looks like I have threatened her to move into Hell,_ Darlene thought.

"Which I haven't built to be imprisoned in, daughter." her mother's voice noticed from the stairs and when they looked to them, they saw Demona standing there together with Jarred. "What exactly are you planning to do?"

Another one would have thought this was a joke, but Demona's dry voice didn't had a spark of amusement. While Jarred approached his mother and sat down in the chair beside her with a face still slightly unhappy, Darlene noticed that she couldn't remember her mother ever making a joke.

"We just talked about tomorrow night." her daughter replied in the same dry tone while she shortly looked on her son.

Meanwhile, Shade had risen and approached her master to smell if everything was okay, with Gem holding on her back, holding herself with her tiny claw.

"And what about it then?" Demona asked, her tone having a hint of aversion in it while she took up Gem from Shade's back, tickling the infant's sensitive belly.

"Well, you and Darlene, along with her children, are invited by the whole clan to visit us for a meal, sister." Desdemona explained to her sister, having a slight smile on her face.

Demona's mood dropped by some degrees and she stopped tickling Gem in her arms.

"Tomorrow I have..." she began only to be stopped by Darlene.

"No dates in business, neither in private," Demona's child noticed. "I have checked your calendar, mother." On the slightly angry look of her mother she added. "And I think this is the best way to explain your plans to the others, especially the hatchlings."

Demona looked on the gathered females unhappily, approached them and after having given Gem back to her mother, sat down on the free chair.

"It seems you leave me no choice then." she asked coolly, but her voice showed that she had been defeated while Shade sat beside her master's feet-claws on the ground.

"No, we don't." Darlene replied smiling, knowing that she had won.

"Come sister, you will see. It will be nice." Desdemona told her, having even so a soft smile on her lips.

Sighing, Demona began to stroke Shade's head, who replied to this with a soft, but constant purring. Somehow she doubted her sister's words... and she would be proven right soon.


	3. Adaptions and a Story

****

08.08.98; 21:27; Castle Wyvern:

Demona, Shade in her arms, landed in the courtyard, knowing through the noises behind her that her family did the same. She appreciated this, especially since she knew that her grandchildren had improved a lot in gliding over the last months and weren't much back to others of their age, at last until it came to turbulence.

Slowly the immortal placed Shade on the earth and looked around, looking to the others of her former clan who had seen their arrival since they either had been busied on the roof of the castle or were in the courtyard... no one of them was happy to see her, either some of the former Moray clan looked hard with unhidden mistrust on their former leader, but neither it surprised the immortal, not it interested her, this wasn't the reason why she choose to come.

"Let's go in." she told her family who had just landed completely and went ahead, Shade by her side.

By doing so she noticed, even not really surprising for her, Deborah, who came out of the shadows, eyeing her former pupil with even more mistrust in her eyes than the others had.

"You may check me for weapon but do it fast old teacher." Demona told her "I guess the meal will begin soon."

Deborah's eyes lit up slightly red when she had to hear this impertinence from her 'guest', but before she could reply something Darlene intervened.

"We are very thankful for that you have invited us." Darlene explained, going over her mother's words and eyeing her shortly angrily. "I hope we don't cause you any trouble."

Deborah first looked on Darlene and then back on her former pupil, asking herself who had taught this gargoyle manners, since her mother definitely had none.

"No _you_ don't." she replied, deciding to look over Demona straight to Darlene. "The meal will be served in thirty minutes earliest, so you might come in the Great Hall to amuse yourself with the rest of the clan."

"We would like it." Darlene replied at once, fearing her mother might deny this and while she did so she noticed that her mother's eyes were completely icy now.

Deborah took this with a nod and led them in.

Meanwhile Lana looked around cautiously, to see if there were any of these 'eager' males in her near, but luckily there weren't. While she did so, she noticed that the gargoyles around her eyed them coldly.

_and mum says we are family_ Lana thought, until she noticed that these gargoyles were just looking angrily on her grandma.

Meanwhile they had entered the great hall which was filled now with many gargoyle, a quarter of the clan Darlene guessed, who all looked interested on their guests.

"The leader and his second are in the information room." Deborah told them "They are going through the newest reports and come later."

Darlene nodded, while Demona eyed the room as if she hadn't heard the older warrior.

"Mother, sister," Angela greeted her family by going through the mass of other gargoyles of whom some looked not happy by the word 'mother' "you're here."

"We promised." Darlene replied smiling while Demona just nodded, she wasn't in the mood for happy greetings and Angela sensed this.

"It will still be some minutes until the meal will be served." Angela noticed into the silence looking to her mother. "There is something I want to show you."

Demona looked not very enthusiastic to her daughter.

"What?" she asked calmly, her long live had taught her that surprises were never good.

"You'll see." Angela replied with a warm smile "Jarred might come, too."

The last words were more directed to Darlene than to the hatchling and the adult nodded, knowing where her sister was going to lead their mother.

"Come." Angela told them and turned around, going slowly to a floor leading away from the main hall.

Jarred smiled, running beside of Angela, while Demona sighted and, with Shade by her side, followed her daughter with an emotionless face. knowing that her steps were eyed by the others in the room, if just with the borders of their eyes.

Darlene with Gem in her arms and Lana stayed back and looked after them. She was still a bit puzzled by her mother's words during the arrival, but guessed it was just her mother's usual mood, so nothing serious.

_if you are such happy now just wait until later this evening, mother_ Darlene _thought you will have much of fun_

She was torn out of her thoughts when a caramel skinned gargess approached.

"Darlene, Lana." Desdemona greeted smiling and then added a bit surprised. "Where is my sister?"

"Angela wanted to show her something." Darlene explained, calming the gargess down. "She took Jarred with her, so I guess she wants to show them the hatchlings' room."

The caramel skinned gargess nodded.

"I already feared she might have changed her mind." Desdemona revealed, why she approached Darlene even more, her eyes now clearly directed on the hatchling in Darlene's arms.

"I would have brought mother here in chains if she had." Darlene replied half-joking, noticing Desdemona's interest in Gem.

"Greet her Gem." she told the infant who, as if she had understood, extended her claws to reach the gargess.

Desdemona smiled and gave Gem her claws who smiled by this.

Then, remembering something she looked up, looking at Darlene with a look, near cautious.

"What is?" Darlene asked, sensing the look.

"Well..." Desdemona began unsure "I have talked with some of my brothers and sisters and..."

"And?" Darlene asked curious.

"... and I want to ask you if I could call you sister from now on." on the surprised look of Darlene she continued. "Well you are my sisters child and such my niece in human terms, but in the clan, and you are clan, we refer to each other just as siblings and most of us are still unused to call each other by our new names and so...." she looked in Darlene's eyes and saw the total surprise "but if you don't like it..."

"Don't like it?" Darlene asked, nearly laughing, "I love it... sister. See Gem," Darlene told the hatchling in her arms "you just got a lot of new aunts and uncles."

Desdemona smiled by this.

While her mother got a practical adoption into the clan, Lana faced the other side of this adoption since she was, again besieged by many young males who seeked to win her heart.

"It is nice to see you again." The crested gargoyle with the dark fair hair told her smiling.

"Yes and you look more beautiful every night I see you." another said.

_god I knew this sentences is 1000 years old_ Lana thought, but nodded, praying that they would somehow be able to convince her grandmother to stay.

By doing so she noticed that the walking muscle called Goliath and the one looking like a devil had arrived in the hall.

_grea_t Lana thought _one more_

But while she still thought so, her eyes met Brooklyn's and she noticed to her surprise that the second didn't look happy to see her, but somehow regretful and that instead of coming to her, he followed his leader when this went to greet Lana's mother.

_this is odd_ Lana thought while the males around her told her how beautiful she was _otherwise if he stops besieging me maybe the others will do so, too_

Lana's hopes vanished when one of the males started to tell her how beautiful her eyes were.

Meanwhile Demona had reached up to her daughter's side while Shade and Jarred, both seemingly knowing the way, went ahead of them.

"Where are we going daughter?" Demona demanded to know when they had passed a corner of the floor

Angela wanted first ask her mother to wait, but a look in the cold green eyes taught her better.

"To the hatchlings' room. Xanatos gave it to them so that they have a room for themselves." Angela explained "I thought you would like it to greet them all."

Demona thought about it and didn't became slower while she did so.

"Good," she noticed "so I can tell them of that I plan to leave the city."

Angela stiffened a bit.

"Maybe you should wait until after the meal." she suggested and something in her voice made Demona to stop.

"Why?" the immortal asked and the barely hidden suspicion both scarred and hurt Angela who stopped by herself.

"Because you would ruin them the whole evening if you tell them now." Demona's daughter said. "Later you have enough time to explain this to them."

Demona looked on her daughter and for a moment Angela saw just coldness in her mother's eyes, then the immortal nodded.

"You're right daughter." she admitted. "But I will do it tonight."

Angela nodded slowly, even when she guessed or better hoped that this night would change her mother's opinion.

Slowly mother and daughter began walking further, following Jarred and Shade who had both already reached the door to the room.

_why do I believe she has planned something_ Demona asked herself, looking on her daughter and then shrugged her mental shoulder's _there is nothing which could hold me here_

Such the immortal entered the hatchlings' room, not knowing that she was definitely wrong.

****

08.08.98; 22:41 Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

The clan had taken place to take their meal and now chatted happily in the groups which had been formed at the tables. Demona sat with Darlene, who had Gem in her lap, and Lana on the same table like Goliath, having the joy to sit directly in front of her old teacher.

Jarred ate a bit slack, being in bad mood since Darlene had denied him to join the other hatchlings on the table at the other side of the room. His larger sister meanwhile was happy that her mother had allowed her to sit beside her since the presence of the older gargoyles was much more pleasant, and more silence, than that of the young adults.

Demona had eaten her meal some way too fast for her taste, since she now had nothing to look at than the face of her old teacher, starring on her from the other side of the table. Since the view of Shade, who laid to her master's feet-claws, happily chewing on one of the large bones which were given to the beasts earlier this evening wasn't much more interesting, the immortal looked to Darlene sitting beside her and fed Gem with the last part of food from the plate.

"Well daughter any idea what they serve as dessert." she asked.

"Well to the dessert we want to hear a story from you mother." Darlene told her smiling.

The immortal froze slightly, she disliked her daughter's tone.

"Which story?" the immortal asked, taking a deep gulp of her glass with water.

"The story about who the female was you fought with and why you had to ruin the courtyard by this." Deborah answered her former pupil's question.

This damned unexpected answer let Demona choke since the water refused to glide down her throat and while her mother fought to breath again, Darlene began to speak.

"Surprised?" she asked her mother smugly with a broad grin on her face since the look of total shock in her mother's eyes compensate her for some of the stress the last nights had brought to her while trying not to reveal her knowledge surprised.

"How?" was the only thing Demona brought out before she began to cough again, but even when she did so, she noticed the growing circle of silence, having its centre on this table, knowing that the clan knew what was going on and was eager in hearing it.

"Puck." Goliath replied calmly. "When he returned from a voyage with Fox and Alex he sensed your magic and annulled the spell about us alike with Elisa and Bluestone."

"Luckily since you wouldn't have told us, or?" Deborah demanded to know.

"It isn't your business!" Demona, who had regained some of her self control, noticed angrily.

"The renewed courtyard along with the pain we had to suffer tells something else Demona." Goliath replied to his sister.

"Mom," Lana began, looking completely perplexed to her mother "what is going on?"

"Yeah of what does grandma speaks?" Jarred adds.

Darlene sighted, she had spent hours to think how she could tell this her children.

"Your grandmother cast a spell on us which let us forget a special night a week ago." she explained her children. "Us and the whole world. My and the clan's memories have been restored and now we want some answers."

The last words were more directed to Demona, who decided to take one more swallow of water from her glass, but met her daughter's eyes without hesitation. This was when Darlene noticed that some elders herded the hatchlings from their table, sure to bring them to hatchlings' room to get sure that they learned the true from them.

"Jarred, please follow the other hatchlings." Darlene asked her son and when she saw that he was going to refuse she added "I will explain you everything later."

Jarred was definitely not happy about this, but a look in his mother's eyes made clear that resistance was futile.

Groaning he raised from the table and slowly went to follow the other hatchlings, showing with every step that he would like to stay and listen for the world.

Darlene looked after Jarred and then turned her eyes to her eldest daughter. Actually she didn't want her daughter to listen her mother's story since she guessed that it would become bloody. But then her daughter was nearly a grown up now at least by the standards of the clan and as such Darlene guessed that she had a right to know.

Meanwhile Demona had regained her self control completely and looked around icily. The expressions in the faces of her former clan made clear that they wouldn't let her go without an explanation.

"I have to tell you everything at once or?" Demona asked the ones around the table.

"Yes." Darlene replied. "I think you owe this to us."

Demona shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't think so." she replied, making Darlene scrape a bit of the table's wood while the others just starred on the immortal.

Goliath was the first one to react.

"Demona if you don't tell us..." he began, just to stopped by his former mate with a non-caring gesture.

"I will tell you Goliath, the whole story you want to know." the immortal replied, eyeing her former love angrily. "But I tell you since I want to leave the castle after this, **not** because you have a right to know."

Despite his calm nature Goliath's voice had more than a scent of stress in it when he replied.

"The fifty innocent humans she has killed and the trouble Lucifia caused in the castle give us the right Demona." he replied, working hard to stay cool.

"I don't see why." Demona replied icily "The courtyard like the death humans... " she took a short look to Darlene and both her granddaughters "are nuisances."

Demona ignored the shocked gasps and the hurt look of both her daughters and Lana, whose face had become white by these words of her grandmother.

"This tops even you Demona." Goliath replied angrily, near shouting "She has killed children!"

"I know," his ex-mate replied, every word full of venom "take this and imagine what she would have done to the city you has idiotically chosen to protect if I wouldn't have stopped her. Be lucky that no one of the clan had been killed in this night... I hadn't thought it would be so easy."

"So easy?" Darlene asked her unbelieving, having witnessed parts of the fight and still remembering her mother's wounds with shudder.

"You don't know of what she has been capable of." Demona explained.

"Then explain this to us." Angela asked her mother.

"Where shall I begin?" Demona asked both of her daughters, ignoring the other gargoyles for now.

"With her father." Darlene told her. "Who was he and where have you met him?"

Demona sighted.

"It was the 2nd of February 1623 when I was going to take me some meal...."

Such the immortal began to spin the story, one of the arts in which she had gained some knowledge in all her years, at least according to all the hatchlings who had once listened to her and even most of the gargoyles now listening couldn't do anything but let themselves being captured by Demona's unusual calm voice.

****

09.08.98; 01:23; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

The way her mother told the story let even Darlene forgot her mother's hard words from the beginning for now. From the first time when her mother had met Shaman, how she fell in love with him, how she even became a shaman herself and shortly afterwards his mate and second.

When she told of the night in which Lucifia, whose name had still been Little Panther back then, along with her siblings had hatched, Darlene noticed for the first time in a very long time a clear sparkle of happiness in the immortal's eyes and made her forget for one second that she had killed even these hatchling, he half sister just nights before.

The following details of her life back then were mostly centred on the description of the Indian clan's life which she had been part of, containing descriptions of how she had helped teaching Little Panther's generation how to glide and finally had witnessed their ascension to true warriors and grownups of the clan.

This all made Darlene remembering her own first gliding lessons and the ascension ceremony her mother made for her. The ceremony hadn't been a great one, considering that she had been the only one to ascend, but her mother had pointed out the importance of this to make her an adult in the eyes of the other gargoyles. Since they were the only ones of their kind Darlene had known of, for her this ceremony had somehow been pointless... not that she had dared to tell this her mother.

Demona meanwhile looked around when she remembered these nights... the luck she had felt back then. These lucky memories had changed into pain beyond words during the years and now...

Darlene looked at her mother and wished she could study her soul just through her eyes, but she couldn't and her mother's face had stayed even most of the time, not revealing the inner trouble her she sure fought with. But her mother wouldn't tell this, not to the clan, not to her, neither to Angela, she was too...

This was when the gargess noticed that Shade had gone to another table near their own and was actually smelling interested between the feet-claws of the gargoyles sitting there. It was nothing truly interesting for Darlene and she would have turned her eyes back to her mother if she hadn't noticed a movement under the table.

"What?" Darlene whispered until she recognised the movement a moment later and it wasn't just another gargbeast as she had imagined before.

"Mother please wait a second." she asked the immortal who was just to continue with the story, just to continue in a damned stern voice, now directed in the direction of the table "Jarred Anderson if you don't bring your tail out of the table I will drag you out by it."

Most of the gargoyles looked surprised on her, not knowing what she meant, but they at once turned their heads to the table when Jarred crept out of the table and looked on his mother while smiling like mad and rubbing his right arm.

Darlene was just going to concern herself with her son when Shade, still smelling under the table, began to bark.

Wondering Darlene, like most of the other gargoyles, looked to this again seeing that there was yet another figure under the table. Demona, who was indeed not surprised, crossed her arms.

"You too Connor!" she told the other hatchling with a slightly angered voice even when Angela believed to see the glimmer of amusement in them, if just for a second.

Such Connor crept out of under the table and placed himself beside Jarred, looking just as uneasy as his playmate did while their mothers starred on them.

"Go back to the other hatchlings." Demona ordered, still with crossed arms, her voice calm, but hard as ice.

"And stay there." Darlene added, her voice a bit softer than that of her mother but not much.

Both hatchlings nodded obediently, when an elder raised.

"I think I can accompany them both to get sure that they find the way." the white-haired gargess said and laid a claw on both the hatchling's shoulders.

With this the hatchlings, led by the elder, disappeared leaving the now slightly amused rest alone.

Well most of them were amused, since when Darlene turned her head to her mother she saw that Demona indeed starred ahead with an expression of dark pain in her eyes.

Demona noticed the attention of her biological eldest daughter and her green eyes became cold again when she faced the sparkling blue ones of her, sparkling as if they could see directly into her soul and for one moment the immortal feared nothing more than this.

But the moment passed and the ancient gargoyle regained her inner certainty.

"And," she began cynically, looking around on the faces of her former clan "are you satisfied so far?"

"Welllll..." her green skinned brother with the crooked horn, who had named himself Thersities began "nice story, but what made this nice girl to get **these** eyes, not to speak of her bad attitude like y...." Thersities bid on his tongue, seeing a sparkle in his sister's eyes "like she has."

Demona looked at her brother some more seconds and finally sighted, knowing that he had nearly spoke out what most of them thought, that Lucifia had been just as bad as she was...

_fools_ Demona thought half bitterly, half amused _they have no idea_

But she would give it to them.

"The humans..." she replied icily, her voice full of venom, which made Darlene and Angela starring in horror on their mother.

Such she told them, told them of the last three nights of this chapter of her eternal life, of the betrayal by the one human she believed to be worth their trust, of her mate's death, her own distraction of the Hunter and how she came back, finding her clan destroyed, but one. Then, with a slight smile which made a part in Darlene shudder, she told the clan how she and Lucifia had slaughtered the humans who had dared to oppose them.

The smile didn't fade when she told them about how she discovered Lucifia threatening the boy, but it changed from happy to sarcastic when she revealed what her companion or totem led her to. Angela noticed the slight trembling of her mother's claw when these told them of the battle she had to fight against her daughter and how she finally was able to imprison her into the rock.

While she did so, she didn't notice that Darlene starred on her with tears threatening to emit her eyes. It weren't one, but three siblings she would never get the opportunity to speak with. Her mother had lost a whole family and she hadn't known it before!

Darlene felt a coldness creeping in her heart and she held Gem closer to her breast, both to protect her baby girl and herself.

_if it would have been Lana on Lucifia's place_ Darlene thought _and I in my mothers... I would have gone mad._

"...after the spirits of my clan were gone it was over."

These words were like someone had thrown Darlene out of a nightmare and she was thankful for it, just that this nightmare was what her mother called her life.

"And someone had to make sure that Lucifia would never be free again, a mission I gave Michael, his family and the whole town..." Demona laughed up sarcastically and total humourless "even for guarding a rock that human were useless."

These words were followed by a silence, while the garoyles, inclusive Elisa, who had joined Goliath's side much to Demona's displeasure and Xanatos, who stood aside, near a floor, tried to digest this story.

"And this was it?" Asrial asked finally, having been able to follow this story with great interest in contrast to her usual behaviour. "I mean there isn't more to tell?"

"There is." Demona replied calmly, eyeing her sister "Stories of countless nights I spent with my mate and the clan, stories about how they... we lived, how we grieved about losses in the clan and celebrated the arrival of new members." the immortal sighted "But there is nothing which is relevant for today."

"What about the Angle-swords mother." Darlene asked "Why have I never seen them anywhere before?"

"Because there was no need of it." Demona replied simply.

"And the amulet?" Darlene continued, "I never saw you with such."

"I don't have it anymore." her mother explained.

"But you said it was the sign of your bound with your companion." Angela began "The sign that you are a shaman."

"I am no shaman anymore." the immortal explained, crossing her arms.

"And why?" Darlene asked, feeling as if she had for every word coming from her mother now.

"This doesn't matter now." Demona replied, "I promised to tell you about Lucifia, such I have done, anything else isn't important."

_you lie mother_ Darlene told her mentally, but rejected it, making a mental note to ask her mother later about this. _maybe she will speak then... when pigs fly_

Demona in return felt a growing urge after a drink, but taking a look to Deborah she knew that the old warrior would probably dislike this... which was more reason to ask for one.

"When have you learned of that she is around then?" Deborah asked her former pupil harshly "If you consider this as important enough to mention."

Demona shrugged her shoulder, going over this remark.

"I discovered that she was around in the night when this invisible assassin attacked," she revealed "sure because she wanted me to. How long she has been free again already I don't know, but I searched for her since then, even when it was without success until this night."

"And you didn't to tell us " Goliath noticed. "Even when you knew how dangerous she was."

"It was better so." Demona replied angrily.

"Why?" Deborah asked, eyeing the immortal as angry as she was.

"Because this was the best way to ensure that she would play with you first and not kill you all at once like she had the power to." the immortal told them with a slight grin.

"And what if she had decided to simple kill us?" Deborah demanded to know.

"She didn't." Demona noticed and took herself a bit more water in her glass. "So there is no reason to complain or?"

"You played with our lives like it was some sort of game. _Again!_" Deborah snarled.

"I did what I had to do." Demona replied icily.

"This is your excuse every time or Demona?" Deborah asked her. "Despite all the times your arrogance led to destruction and pain you would do it again."

Demona laughed cynically by this insult, such neither she nor the clan noticed that Owen, who besides of Xanatos had silently listened Demona's story got a call on his cell-phone.

On Demona's laughs Deborah's eyes became slits and now she didn't look on the immortal in anger but through hate.

"Betrayer!" the old teacher snarled, her eyes turning slightly red "Murderer!"

The silent which had ruled the whole great hall, now enlarged her rule and Darlene believed she would be able to hear a pin falling on the ground. But maybe again she would not since all her senses and concentration was directed on her mother and Deborah, who in returned looked on each other as if they would be the only persons in the world.

"Why do I think you don't speak of the accident with Lucifia anymore?" Demona asked her teasingly, even when she felt her heart beginning to beat in accord when a part of her stomach turned to stone.

"You know what I speak about, you..." Deborah replied, she had stood up now, her upper body hanging over the table, while her claws scratched the wood.

"Deborah it is enough." Goliath intervened, his voice now as hard as his eyes. "Settle this argument with her later, we have...."

He never got to finish this sentences.

"No." Demona interrupted him, not even looking to him, but still eyeing her former teacher. "Let her speak it out, there is no reason why not."

Darlene decided that there definitely were some reasons. Neither she wanted to see this argument become a catfight between these gargesses, nor she wanted to let Lana hear more of this and most of all she disliked the idea how the clan might react to further of her mother's oh so tactful remarks.

"Mother please." she nearly begged "Let us talk about this in another night."

_when our nerves are not down_ she added mentally _by a good cup of hot tea with you and Deborah metres away from each other_

"No." Demona replied icily, not even looking to her daughter but still eyeing her former teacher.

"You wanted this old teacher." she noticed "You wanted this since you came in my home and called me a coward.... no since the moment you heard of what I done in the night when I had brought you here. I know Goliath sentences hasn't satisfied you."

Now Demona's eyes looked around in the clan, of whom most, even these ones of her former clan in Moray, looked as if they had been captured by the argument between her and Deborah.

"As it hadn't most of you." she directed to the clan, eyeing her old drill master a special half-second, to end it by looking on her former teacher again. "So come now say what you want to say."

Deborah looked at her former pupil and was speechless for one moment, asking herself how this young one dared to speak so.

"You betrayed your clan." Deborah told her "You plotted the fall of Wyvern and therefor you let them all be killed while you fled."

"Yes." Demona replied, her eyes showing no sign that this accuse had hit her, but Darlene noticed that her mother's tail switched. "Yes I did so and I'm sorry."

Demona again began to look around in the hall, most of the faces she looked in were not very convinced by her words, even some of these who formed her clan in Moray looked on her with frowns in their faces and she couldn't mind it to them.... she had never told them what really caused the death of her first clan.

"I..." she swallowed.

Despite all the years which had passed since then the images of this night came up to her again, the night when she came back to the castle to find her clan death, smashed by the Viking's, like she had feared.... known in the night before. Demona believed to see her smashed brother's face in her claw again and for a small moment she believed her legs to give in when a overwhelming feeling of what... guilt?

Even when she didn't knew it, she knew, when she saw the look of pity in some faces of the gargoyles surrounding her that the others, most of all her daughters, had seen the inner struggle she felt.

This was what she needed to fight this weak feelings back and at once she regained the control about her mind like her body such that she looked again as self confident as ever.

"I'm sorry..." she began anew and while she did so she felt as if something in her died and when she continued her lips showed the shadow of a sarcastic grin. "but this is meaningless since you know this already and I suppose most of you aren't satisfied with this what I understand completely. I could say that I have somehow been able to save you from this fate would make us even, but I guess this isn't so."

Some growls coming from the clan made clear that she was right and Shade to her feet-claws looked around angrily in the direction the growls had come from.

Darlene meanwhile starred at her mother... she had never said told her to be sorry for anything ever before!

"I don't expect or want forgiveness from anyone." Demona revealed, leading her eyes back on her old teacher and now grinning viciously. "All I want, all I suggest, is that we try to come along for the time until I return to Berlin."

This surprised all the gargoyles in the hall, even Darlene, Angela and Desdemona who had guessed that the immortal had changed her mind by now.

"When?" Deborah asked her icily, not showing if this statement of her former pupil had surprised her.

"In two weeks." Demona explained icily "Since here is nothing more to do this is the best."

The seconds of silent passed while Deborah, like the whole clan, studied her.

"What makes you run away now?" she snarled finally, lying contempt in every letter.

This brought Demona up who, snarling, starred on her teacher with eyes shining like hell and one moment Darlene believed that she would jump over the table direct in Deborah's face.

"Mother," Darlene asked her urging while placing a claw on her mother's shoulder. "please we..."

"**No**." her mother snarled "She wants to know why I go, so I will tell her."

Demona's eyes lasted on Deborah while she continued.

"I go because there is nothing here for me but further arguments with your clan" Demona explained "and I'm not interest in hurting any of you."

"How generous." Deborah noticed sarcastically.

"Oh come _old_ teacher, you should appreciate this most of all." Demona replied with a grin. "I noticed that you have become slower since last time I saw you in a battle... your best times are over."

Deborah's reply wasn't a snarl like Darlene expected, but instead she dug her claws deeper into the wood of the table.

Near pleading Darlene looked to Goliath. He was the clan leader, such he should stop such situations from escalating, but instead he just studied both opponents stoically.

_why can't he order to stop them?_

Finally she realised that maybe it what better so. At least here were some gargoyles to stop both if it would escalate into a fight... which both seemed close to.

"I accept my age Demona." Deborah replied icily "With all its consequences. Unlike others I don't seek to change this magical... not to speak of betraying the person who gave me his youth afterwards."

"He had planned to betray us." Demona defended herself angrily.

"You lie." the old teacher noticed "Or maybe you have really come to believe this. No wonder by your mind."

Demona's snarl was comment enough while Deborah eyed her unimpressed and continued.

"You tend to forget a lot of things Demona." she explained "For example the humans in Wyvern."

"What about them?" Demona asked, sounding nearly bored.

"Your and the Captain's treachery killed more than the half of them." Deborah reminded her "If not for Goliath and what your betrayal had left over from the clan they maybe would have sold them for slaves or worse."

"And?" Demona asked, sounding slightly amused now much to Darlene and Angela's shock.

"For this you don't say 'sorry', do you?" Deborah wanted to know. "Because in teh end they were just humans."

"Why should I." the immortal asked grinning evilly "Cause of the graceful treatment we received through the Princess and her pet-mage? Cause of the arrogant look the guards gave us or the jokes and horror stories they were telling about us?"

"And in the end they were just humans." Deborah concluded.

"Y...." Demona had to bit herself on the tongue not to give her old teacher the answer her heart wanted to say.

The immortal starred a moment angrily on Deborah, before her eyes centred for the half of a second on her granddaughter, remembering that she still insisted in being a human and might be hurt by any offence against this weak race...

"Yes." she told the clan "In the end they were just human and I don't care about them."

The gasps she heard coming from the clan made clear that they hadn't expected this straight answer and the more than hurt look she saw coming from Lana and Darlene proofed this even so.

"But," she continued unmoved "who say I would have acted other if this had been feys? Or just another clan of gargoyles? Why do you assume I would have had mercy with anyone who treats us so?"

This shocked the most members of the clan even more.

"**Sister!**" Desdemona exclaimed unbelieving. "You would kill one..."

Then she bit her lip when she looked at Goliath and realised that her sister had indeed done so already.

"...one of my own kind?" Demona completed "Sister come, we did so when this rouge clan came to our territory years... hundreds of years ago."

"This was something self-defence." Diomedes noticed, just to add "Have you killed some of our kind during the 1000 years?"

His sister opposed Diomedes look with an icy glare, but there was something in Demona's green eyes which let him shudder, something like a mix of blood thirst and pure evilness and for one moment he believed to see Lucifia standing there.

"Maybe, maybe not." Demona replied and turned her look back to Deborah. "On any case I'm ready with this... or have you more questions old teacher."

Deborah starred on her former pupil and her eyes showed that she hated this nickname, like Demona knew.

"No," Deborah told her "I know already more than I ever wanted to know about you."

Demona smiled sarcastically.

"Well then I have one question to **you** old teacher." she noticed "And I think after I answered all your questions tonight you owe me an answer."

"Mphhf." Deborah snorted "I have nothing to hide."

Demona looked straight in her old teacher's eyes.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Deborah asked.

"Why have you come after me?" the immortal wanted to know. "Why are you so obsessed to bring me to 'justice'? Why are you..." Demona looked around shortly, noticing with a satisfied grin that she had the attention of all the clan "who of all here has maybe the last reason to, so mad on me?"

Demona paused a second.

"What do you want from me?" Deborah's former pupil demanded to know

Deborah starred on the immortal, hit by this question.

_you know it!_ she screamed mentally on her _because of what you did, because of you has to be punished, because you are my respons..._.

When the old teacher stayed silence, Demona knew that she was on the upside now.

"My role at the massacre on this clan, what I did over the centuries..." Demona grinned "Oh come old one this doesn't matter for you, at last not as much as you want everyone to believe it."

"How dare you to...." Deborah snarled.

"Oh you were shocked to hear of what happened." Demona intervened, not even thinking of letting her teacher speak out "But you were even more shocked of hearing who did it., hearing that I was the..." she swallowed, and just for half of a second she looked unsure "the traitor."

This word came hard over her lips, but when she had said it her face straightened at once and she smiled again... even when to call this a smile was an offence to this word.

Lana suddenly didn't want to hear more anymore, the way her grandmother spoke of death, pain and destruction, the grin on her face, made her sick, but she couldn't do anything, least of all go now.

"Your arrogance really can't become bigger, can it?" Deborah asked her "Do you really believe you would be anyone important to me?"

"Maybe," Demona noticed, shrugging her shoulders "but I'm not the only one, am I?"

Deborah's eyes became slits and she felt that her heart began to beat faster.

"What are you talking about?" the old teacher wanted to know, even when she knew it already.

"I talk about Coldsteel, how he is called now." Demona explained "And I talk about Roland."

Darlene looked around when she heard the whispers this names caused, she had heard of Coldsteel from Desdemona, but Roland... this was a name new to her.

"First you have been our rookery mother, then you have been our teacher and in all that years you failed to teach us honour." Demona noticed "Three gargoyles going rouge in one rookery? Two of them directly trained by you?"

Deborah glared on her former pupil, not knowing what to say, which she shared with most of the clan who were stumbled by their former second's and leader's accusations.

"Yes I'm asking myself why the clan trusts you with the physical training of the hatchlings." Demona asked and noticed that she had hit a point, since her former teacher's eyes became red like hell while her claws practically split the table.

One moment Demona believed that Deborah would leap on her, but just in this second Goliath raised, having enough of this argument.

"Demona enough!" his voice boomed "Her position as teacher isn't doubted by anyone of the clan and I won't allow you to do so."

His ex-mate just starred on him, not noticing the looks of the other clan members.

Darlene meanwhile had noticed this indeed, the look of surprise in the eyes of Deborah's mate along with the several gasps coming from the clan which had mixed with her own.

No one had believed that Demona would go so far... otherwise it wasn't the first time this evening that they had been surprised by this gargoyle.

But one thing made Darlene more upset than anything. She knew that her mother acted, she knew it since ever when her mother had spoken of her old teacher before, there had been this spark of admiration in her voice, but neverless she now denied this, even blaming her to have failed.

"Oh come on Goliath." Demona told him, grinning full of arrogance "She even failed to notice that I took lessons by the Archmage."

Her smile quickly faded when she noticed the large silence, now ruling the hall and seeing in the faces of her former clan which were partly unbelieving, partly suspicious and all directed on her.

Demona looked back in Deborah's eyes and recognised one since which shattered her self-security for one second.

_she hasn't told it to them!_ she exclaimed in thoughts, _damn, damn...._

"The Archmage?" Agamemnon asked her unbelieving "Lass what had you to do with him???"

Demona eyed him as symbol for the clan, and his face, containing a mix of shock, dark fears and maybe even a bit disappointment, made her nearly loose control for a while.... nearly, since just before it happened, she concentrated on this part in her again who wasn't interested in what anyone in the world thought of her, who was even amused by the look of shock in the clan's eyes and who amused a lot by thinking of how long she had been able to hide it from them.

"From the year 971 to 975 I was his apprentice." she explained grinning "He taught me how to use magic and some other nice skills."

The gasps of the clan made her smile even more and just because it was so nice she added something more.

"Oh yes by the way..." she explained "I was the one who summoned the Nuckleave."

"WHAT!?" Agamemnon asked her unbelieving.

"It was an accident." Demona explained, shrugging her shoulders as if she wanted to ask them why they were so upset.

The reply was an unbelieving silence by the clan while the Moray's asked their new clan-siblings what their former leader was talking about.

Before anyone could say anything more, Owen appeared practically out of nowhere besides Demona, holding an activated cell-phone in his still organic hand.

"For you Miss Destine." he explained.


	4. Fighting it out

[Dramatic Break]

Demona stared at the wooden servant, as if he had made a joke, thinking for a moment that the trapped trickster inside him had come through, but the cell phone was activated.

The immortal took up the phone, hiding the irritation that she, like the other gargoyles, felt through a slight growl.

_Who is so idiotic to..._ Demona didn't come to an end with her thought, since another question came up. _Who knows I'm here? Who..._

"Yes?" she spoke into the phone, her voice now barely hiding her nervousness... This couldn't be.

"Hello, mother!" a well known voice greeted her, the tone sounding lovely and warm, even slightly amused… But it was false, and Demona didn't need to be a good liar herself to know that this voice had any of these feelings.

"Hello, Lucifia." the immortal replied, her voice sounding even more emotionless than Owen's did and her face being once more a mask.

Darlene, like the rest of the gathered gargoyles and humans, stared on this unbelieving.

_This can't be, _ Darlene thought, _we saw her die... Mom burned her! _

It took some moments until she realized that she had actually _heard_ her fallen sister's voice and some more seconds until she discovered the source of this voice was on the loudspeakers hanging on the ceiling of the hall.

Lana's face meanwhile had become completely bloodless again, as Darlene noticed, even when she guessed that she didn't look much better.

"Oh, mother," Lucifia's voice noticed sadly. "Somehow I nearly believe you aren't happy to hear that I am alive again."

"Where are you?" Demona asked her, her voice sounding monotone, as if she hadn't even noticed what Lucifia had said and for a moment Darlene believed her mother to be shocked. "How can you be alive again?"

"We both know ways, don't we?" Lucifia replied, not going into this topic. "Unfortunately, I lost a great part of my power during this process, but there is a ritual which can give me this back... and I have everything I need."

If Darlene hadn't been so shocked, she would have noticed that the remaining color had vanished from her mother's face. Instead, she just felt dumb and the voice of her daughter, asking her what this meant, reached her as if it were far away.

"Brooklyn, go to the rookery and look after the eggs." Goliath ordered his second. Brooklyn took this with a nod, rising at once, even when he seemed definitely shocked, and raced to the rookery along with other clan-members who had decided to look after the clan's eggs.

Gem meanwhile began to cry. Even when the infant didn't understand the details, she disliked this voice and felt the reaction, the shock from the other gargoyles, especially her mother, which was enough to make her fear.

First, when she noticed that Gem had begun to cry in her arms, Darlene concentrated on the world outside again, softly rocking her youngest child back and forth, telling her that everything was good, even when she knew it wasn't.

_She has an egg,_ Darlene thought near trembling, _by the Dragon..._

"An egg." Demona noticed with a trembling voice, fighting hard to hold her self-control.

"**Your** egg, mother." Lucifia told her and the clan, laughing amused. "I had no idea of this before I entered the rookery, but then... I couldn't have missed the smell of related blood."

"What?" Angela exclaimed, staring on her mother unbelieving. "But this... you... "

Demona seemingly hadn't heard it, or wasn't interested in the look of shock showing on the faces of her daughter and some of her former clan-mates, but had to control her claws not to crush the cell-phone.

"What do you want?" Demona snarled into the cell-phone.

"Just a little talk, mother." Lucifia noticed. "And maybe I could give you a little hint to where to find me... Wouldn't this be nice?"

"Your egg???" Darlene whispered more to herself than to anyone else, looking first to her mother, then to the gargoyle she knew she had to have mated with.

There had been one egg in the rookery, which had been her mother's and now it was in the claw of her somehow still living sister, Lucifia... waiting to be sacrificed.

Tears were threatening to emit from her eyes when she thought of loosing yet another sibling before she had the opportunity to get to know it. She noticed that Angela was fighting hard not to cry too, being comforted by her mate.

While she tried to gather strength, Darlene heard her mother and Lucifia speaking about things... how Demona had taken revenge on the Hunter who had killed her mate and so had lost some, maybe precious hours.

While Lana gasped by the cruelty her grandmother was once again showing, what she was capable of, Darlene didn't register this fully. She was more captured by the tone of guilt her mother was trying to hide.

_You're asking yourself if did the right thing,_ Darlene noticed unbelieving, _you never questioned yourself, mother._

But before she could digest this, her mother revealed another little detail she had left out by her story.

"...You couldn't do it, mother." Lucifia noticed amused. "I offered you to kill me and you couldn't do it... even if you would have had a millenium of more time."

"Yes." Demona replied icily.

"And so the ghosts of our clan had to appear to help you, for if not then you wouldn't have known for sure that they had been killed..." Lucifia continued, "…much as your other former clans"

"Yes." Demona answered, confirming what she had thought by herself, from the night when she had retained the Phoenix Gate.

"You killed them all." Lucifia's voice noted, still calm, but everybody, even if he wouldn't have understood the meanings of these words, could feel the darkness in it.

Darlene stared on her mother in shock, by these words coming out of the loudspeaker.

_She can't possibly think that..._ she thought, but was stopped by her mother's words.

"Yes." Demona answered, her voice trembling by the effort just to emit the three letters of this word, and she held her eyes, which had stared ahead all the time, closed to not let the tears emit from her eyes, as Darlene guessed.

"No..." Darlene whispered, even when this word went under in the mass of voices she heard coming from the clan, all telling the once clan-member that she was wrong.

"Oh, they tell you that what you did was understandable," Lucifia told her mother, in a caring voice which was just a fake, "that it wasn't your fault, that you couldn't know, but we both know what it was... A weakness."

Demona's eyes opened; now glowing slightly red and the light seemed to break through the wetness of the tears. For one moment, Darlene believed to see two gargoyles standing in the place of her mother, one near of breaking down and crying, while the other seemed near of screaming in anger and unleashing the fury trapped in her about being so helpless.

But the moment faded when Darlene heard the cell-phone slightly cracking, as it threatened to be crushed by an angry gargess.

"Yes." Demona answered once again, this time nearly snarling, making some of the gargoyles who had stopped trying to comfort her, gasp.

"That was it," she continued. "All I didn't mention about this night... Now tell me where you are?!"

The last words were more a snarl than anything else was was, and when Lucifia didn't reply at once, half of the gathered gargoyles feared that she might have hung off.

"Where you wanted it to end." Lucifia voice revealed and let a little click follow when she ended the call.

For one moment, everyone in the room stared on the immortal, who instead simply stared ahead motionless.

_This is too much,_ Darlene thought, looking to her mother, _by the Dragon this..._

"The St. Damien's Cathedral." Demona thought out-loud. "It was there where I wanted to release the virus, and there is an altar."

"Quickly!" Goliath ordered and half of the clan followed the order, even Darlene felt herself standing up, despite the fact that she still held Gem in her arms.

She stopped when she noticed that her mother showed no sign to rise, or even to move.

"Mother, come on, we..." Darlene began, just to be stopped by her mother.

"We will arrive too late." Demona finished the sentence in a distant, emotionless voice. "She would never give us a real chance."

Most of the gargoyles stopped by these depressing words of the immortal.

"Fuck you!" Brooklyn screamed angrily, even more frustrated since he knew she was right. "Shall we simply sit here while Satan's daughter kills one of our eggs?"

"Even the fastest here couldn't glide the distance in the time needed." Demona said, not even registering Brooklyn's offence. She raised her head and looked around as if she searched for someone to neglect this.

"I think I can help." a calm voice noticed and when the crowd of gargoyles looked to the source of this voice, they saw David Xanatos, standing in his full-gargoyle-armor in the doorway outside to the courtyard. "But we don't have lot of time."

"Xanatos, what..." Goliath began.

"I'll show you in the courtyard." the billionaire told him, eyeing Demona for a second, and turned around to walk out.

Goliath exchanged a look with his second and then followed him, like the rest of the clan did, feeling a bit of hope rising.

Finally, even Demona followed her former ally with Darlene by her side, not feeling any hope about how this human could possibly help her.

_If he makes a joke,_ the immortal thought _I'll take his throat as a trophy._

But when she reached the courtyard, she saw that Xanatos was indeed serious.

"These two," the billionaire began, pointing with one of his mechanic claws on two steel-clan robots standing activated in the courtyard, "should be fast enough to reach the church in time."

"Then do it fast." Goliath nearly pleaded, not noticing that Demona had come up to his side, while the rest of the clan formed a circle around the things, which still looked strange for most of the clan-members.

"The main memory-chip is deleted, so they can't fight against anyone." Xanatos explained, looking to Goliath. "But I can order them to fly to the cathedral with someone on their back."

"I'll go." Demona told Xanatos, as a matter of fact and then gave a short look to her ex-mate.

The exchange of looks between these two lasted for one second, and Goliath nodded, knowing that his former second was maybe the best one to fight her daughter for her egg's life.

"And who shall ride on the other robot?" Deborah asked her, more than displeased by the way Demona took control.

"You." Demona told her former teacher and then turned around to jump on the robot.

Deborah, still standing beside her mate, looked unbelieving on her former pupil, not believing what she had heard, like most of the others.

"Go." Goliath ordered her, accepting Demona's choice and having come over the shock a bit, the old teacher followed, climbing on the back of the free robot.

"Mother..." Darlene told Demona, going nearer to her.

Demona nodded and even if she wanted to say more, she never got the possibility to do so since the robots started their jetpacks and she had to concentrate on holding onto her unusual jet.

"Please come back." Darlene whispered, seeing her mother vanishing very fast in the night air.

"What is it with you and your battle-suit?" Brooklyn asked. "Can't you transport one more?"

"Just half the normal speed." Xanatos explained. "Like the steel clan, it was in an upgrading process, you have luck that just these are ready."

_How fitting, _ Brooklyn thought sarcastically, _Lucifia has really chosen the right moment, hasn't she? _

"Xanatos, can you go with me?" Goliath asked.

The billionaire nodded.

"Sister," he addressed to Desdemona, "make a group of four of the fastest gliders and follow us."

Desdemona nodded, turning around to call for the ones she knew were the fastest.

"Brooklyn, you are in command." Goliath told his second, who wanted more to go with his leader, but just nodded obediently, knowing that an argument would lead to nothing than the loss of more precious seconds.

"Please be careful." Elisa asked her mate, laying a hand on his broad shoulder.

Goliath nodded and a second later, a booster was heard, bringing Xanatos and the leader of the Manhattan clan nearer the place where they maybe couldn't change anything anymore.

Darlene didn't notice much of this, like she didn't notice Desdemona, her new sister and several other gargoyles vanishing into the night, following their leader surely much too slow to matter. Being more centered on what happened around her, she would maybe have handed Gem to her sister and glided with them, but all her thoughts were with her mother and the fate of the egg, which was decided maybe at this moment.

"Please come back." she whispered anew, cuddling Gem in her arms, just to be sure that _her_ baby was okay.

"Mom." she heard Lana's voice beside her and when she looked around, she saw her daughter's face, worried like her own.

As much as Lana seemed to dislike being with the clan, the thought of loosing an egg seemingly even troubled her, especially since it turned out to be a would be uncle or aunt to be hatched.

"What now?" Lana asked, helpless, while Shade stood at Darlene's feet and added a slight whining, as if to ask this too.

Darlene sighed, but before she could say something to calm both the gargbeast and her daughter, another voice stopped her.

"Okay," Brooklyn began, raising his voice to be heard over the muttering in the courtyard, which was filled now with the greatest part of the clan, "listen!"

Much to his wonder, the muttering died at once and all eyes were directed on the second from one moment to the other, and Brooklyn felt himself suddenly very young again.

"There is nothing we can do for the egg now, but hope." he explained, noticing what everyone was thinking. "So I think the best thing we can do, is go back in again."

Much to Brooklyn's surprise, it wasn't Kronos who refused.

"But there has to be something we can do..." Angela asked him, tears shimmering in her eyes. "I mean, we can't simply..."

Brooklyn shook his head and despite the way he felt, he looked twenty years older now.

"If your mother and the teacher don't stop Lucifia in time," he noted, his voice as cold as his eyes, which were now looking in those of his former flame, "I doubt that the whole clan would make a difference."

Darlene felt her stomach growing cold by the words she heard of this gargoyle, knowing deep in her heart that he was right, as the other gargoyles around her knew, including her half sister who now cuddled herself on her mate's bulky body.

"Come in." Brooklyn ordered the depressed clan and went in, paying a short look to Kronos, but he still didn't say anything. Maybe even he respected the earnest of the situation.

Darlene followed the other gargoyles in, not knowing what else to do and set herself on the chair she had sat in before. Shade set herself to Darlene's feet-claws, whining, depressed of not being able to follow her friend.

Darlene understood the beast completely, but even so knew that there was nothing to do than to wait and try not to go crazy meanwhile...

_Which one had it been?_ She thought _If mother knew this... _

In the distance, she heard Brooklyn ordering two gargoyles, Connor's father and another gargoyle, resembling Brooklyn but with a long white beard, to guard the rookery.

"I don't see what this shall bring," Kronos noticed, "Lucifia has what she wanted."

"Do you want to take this risk?" Brooklyn asked him irritated.

"No," the black-skinned gargoyle replied, "but this should have been thought out earlier, ever since we learned of Lucifia."

Brooklyn's eyes lit up white shortly and he had to control himself not to snarl, knowing that this would lead to nothing.

_He truly does it deliberately, _ the second thought angrily, _this bastard tries to hang this on Goliath._

"No one thought of this, Kronos," Brooklyn told him finally, his voice near a snarl, noticing the silence around him, but not seeing and not caring of what the others thought in this moment. "You included that this is not the time for blaming each other."

"The second is right." Hudson confirmed, stepping demonstratively to Brooklyn's side. "In times like this, the clan has to hold together."

Agreeing murmurs showed that great parts of the clan seemed to support this position, maybe more by a natural reflex than through conscience thoughts. Kronos, noticing that he was on a lost position, just eyed the second angrily.

"It is always like this here?" Lana asked her mother while looking around, being relieved that at least the singles of the clan were busy with something other than looking at her.

"No, Lana." Darlene replied, hoping that she spoke the truth. "It is just a bad time."

_Amongst others,_ she thought, _they could write books about the trouble that mother told me that the clan had been through just when she was young._

Naturally there was no reason to tell this to Lana now.

"Don't worry, Lana," she told her when she saw the worried look in her daughter's face. "Your grandmother is the best warrior I can imagine to stop Lucifia, and Deborah is a warrior too."

Lana nodded.

"Hey," Angela's voice came from beside them and when Darlene looked up, she saw her half-sister standing there, her eyes still a bit reddened, "can I sit beside you?"

Darlene nodded, offering her the chair their mother had sat in before.

"I can't believe that she hasn't told us about another sibling." Angela said. "I mean, why? This makes no sense."

"Mother loves to have secrets, that is her point." Darlene replied; trying not to sound irritated. "And she had set her departure before the hatching of the egg."

Angela stared at Darlene for a second... she hadn't thought of that yet.

"But we would have noticed it." Lana came in. "I mean, blood relationships are very evident amongst fr... Gargoyles."

Darlene stared at her daughter and had to suppress a smile, despite the situation.

"Not necessarily." she replied. "Some gargoyles come after more than one parent... or after their grandparents."

"I would recognize someone who is related to me." Lana noted self-secure, which made her aunt and her mother look at each other, exchanging knowing looks.

****

09.08.98; 05:36; Castle Wyvern Great Hall:

An unnatural silence had lain over the hall, of a sort Darlene couldn't really bear. She had placed Gem on the ground, watching her try to encourage Shade into a game, to which she didn't respond, as the beast seemed too depressed for such.

Suddenly the doors to the great hall opened and showed two dark forms in front of many other dark forms. Darlene only needed one second to learn that it was her mother, standing with caped wings besides Goliath. She seemed to hold something in her arms.

All eyes were centered on the immortal when she swung back the wings, revealing what it was in her arms, which was definitely no egg.

_Lucifia has done it, _ was the first thought going through Darlene's mind and the gasps around her made clear that she was not the only one to think so.

Then the little body in Demona's arms began to move and so showed that it was indeed very much alive.

Barking happily, Shade stood up and raced towards her master, greeting her by touching her legs while Angela and Darlene, followed by the rest of the clan, came after her.

"Mother," Angela greeted more than relieved "you have..."

She stopped in shock while looking on her new little sister, a cute little naked hatchling with blood red hair in her mother's arms... A hatchling with two little horns growing out of her head, Grey skin and a somewhat burlier body than her mother ever had.

"Mother!" Darlene exclaimed, not knowing what else to say.

"Old clan rules." Demona explained in a calm voice while eyeing her biologically eldest daughter, relaxed and then looking somewhere behind Darlene's back.

When Darlene followed the look, she saw the nameless gargoyle who had been her mother's second back in Moray and who was definitely her new sister's father.

The nameless studied his blood-daughter from a somewhat distance and then exchanged a long look with his former leader.

_Five children,_ Darlene thought unbelieving, noticing in the distance how Goliath and Desdemona were greeted by their mates. _Five children by five partners._

Her thoughts traveled further, but she was stopped when she felt something touching her legs.

It was Gem, the infant who had been forgotten by the tables, who had a great interest in what was going on and was now standing by her mothers leg and looking curiously up.

Smiling, Darlene took up her youngest daughter into her arms and smiled on her.

"Wanting to see your new aunt?" she asked Gem and turned her to the hatchling in Demona's arms.

Gem looked curiously on the other infant, greeting her with baby talk.

The younger hatchling just stared on the other hatchling curiously, but definitely still confused.

"Well, she definitely takes after you, sister." Thersities noticed with a big smile on his beak.

Demona nodded, but now her eyes had again somewhat of ice in them.

"And Lucifia?" Angela asked, her voice suddenly bare of the happiness she had felt before.

"She escaped." Goliath told his daughter and the clan, who had gathered around Demona to see their new member.

The murmurs showed that the clan was definitely not happy about this.

"So we have to be prepared for an attack now." Othello noticed.

"Yes," Goliath said with a nod, "but for now..."

He turned to Xanatos.

"Xanatos, we owe you a great debt for helping to save our egg..." the clan leader stopped, looking shortly to the hatchling in his ex-mate's arms, "…this child of our clan."

With this, Goliath extended a claw to his once enemy.

"No need, Goliath," the billionaire replied with a cold grin, slowly shaking the claw with his own mechanical claw. "It was for the security of my own family as well."

Goliath understood indeed, but nevertheless felt a sort of new trust for this human, rising in him.

This scene was watched with approval by nearly all gargoyles of the clan.

_Nearly,_ Darlene thought, noticing that her mother's face had become a mask of ice.

The green eyes in this mask suddenly had a red glimmer in them when they discovered something.

When Darlene followed the eyes, she discovered Elisa Maza, the clan leader's mate.

"Mother..." Darlene exclaimed, shocked, but when her mother's eyes turned to her, she saw no sign of regret in them, just hardness.

Before she could continue, a gargoyle, the one who resembled Brooklyn, came running into the great hall on all fours.

"The eggs, they hatch!" He exclaimed, his voice being a mix of worry and happiness.

At once, Darlene forgot what she wanted to say and turned in shock around to the male.

The shock lasted, as long as she noticed the other gargoyles moving the quickest way to the rookery and felt her being pulled to it even so.

"Mom?" Lana asked questioningly.

"Come." her mother simply replied, laying a claw on the shoulder of her eldest, as if to lead her while she still held Gem in her other arm.

When they reached the rookery, Darlene noticed that the hatchlings, including her son, had already been led to the event and were now excitedly kneeling in front of the eggs, which moved back and forth.

Something definitely wanted to come out of them.

Despite the fact that her eyes were now centered on the sink in the middle of the room, where the eggs of the clan were slowly moving. She noticed that her mother slowly came forward and then knelt beside Connor and Jarred with the little hatchling that was her newest daughter, in her arms.

For a moment, the nightmare she and the clan had been through minutes before, seemed far away for Darlene, especially when a clawed leg finally broke through the first egg.

Unluckily, this moment of happiness faded when Owen came in, a cell phone in his organic hand and heading through the mass of gargoyles, straight to the kneeling Demona.

When the servant laid a hand on her mother's shoulder and everyone looked up Darlene feared she might yell on him and so destroy the peaceful atmosphere completely, but then Demona discovered the cell phone in his hand and understood.

Darlene noticed how Demona's eyes became icy while she tried to let her face stay a calm mask when she talked to Connor standing beside her and finally handing him his little sister.

She took the cell-phone from Owen and made one last look to the eggs... her eggs, where now a hatchling with white hair had nearly freed itself completely from the eggshell, while two other eggs already showed large cracks.

Darlene didn't see her mother's eyes, but she guessed that she could see through them what she thought of this moment, that there wasn't a moment of peace for her even now.

Demona turned around, walking straight out of the rookery, followed by the surprised looks of most of the gargoyles and Darlene would have followed her if Goliath had not turned around to her and shook his head, showing that he wanted to go after her alone.

Reluctantly, Darlene followed the clan leader's wish and stayed, even if her heart wished to be able to follow her mother and help her somehow. When she looked back to the center of the rookery, she noticed that three more hatchlings were on their way to free themselves from their eggs.

Yet the happiness she had felt by this sight before hadn't come back again, since her mind wandered to her mother and which talk she had with her _sister_.

After some seconds, the greatest part of the hatching was over when even the last egg showed large cracks and then released a surprised female hatchling, screaming loudly.

Smiling, Angela came forward, kneeling beside Connor while she saw how the rookery mothers took up the last newly hatched hatchlings and took care of them like it was habit, since gargoyle clans existed.

"Hey." Angela directed to Connor, who still held his little sister in his arms.

Demona's youngest daughter was beautiful, for Angela she seemed like the most beautiful hatchling in the world, yet she couldn't come to oversee the various innards of the egg still hanging in her blood-red hair and partly covering the whole naked body.

_Time for her first bath,_ Angela thought smiling.

"Little Brother," she addressed him, as how it was custom in the clan to someone of the younger generation. "Might I take her?" Angela asked her half-brother gently. "She needs a bath and afterwards she surely will be hungry."

Connors seemed distrusting for a moment, but then the look in his green eyes changed, showing just a bit of reluctance.

"Aunt Demona told me I should hold her." he told her.

Angela nodded.

"Yes, but she is..." she hesitated, not wanting to ruin for him, or his siblings, this evening, "…busy. Believe me, it will be okay."

Connor looked to his big sister, still a bit reluctant, but finally his trust in her won and he gently handed the infant into Angela's big arms. The hatchling herself looked up curiously into this new face while she felt the arms holding her securely.

These arms somehow weren't so strong like the ones she had been in at first and this female smelt different, but yet the female smiled which was all the hatchling needed and such she tried happily to reach the female's brown hair with her tiny claws.

"Maybe I should take her." a voice came from Angela's right side.

Looking up, she learned that it was one of the rookery mothers, actually two generations above her mother's rookery, who now looked on her with a neutral face, only her eyes seemed slightly disapproving.

"You have never bathed a hatchling before," the nameless elder explained calmly. "Besides, she will be hungry afterwards and you can't nurse."

Angela couldn't, but help take a look on the swollen breasts of the elder that had enlarged during the last few months. They were a sign that she, as a fully-grown clan-member, was ready to nurse the clan's new children, while 'young ones' like Angela had to wait for the next rookery.

For a moment, Angela didn't know what to say. Luckily though, someone intervened in time.

"I can help her." Darlene, still with Gem in her arms, said as she came from behind. "I have lots of experience in bathing infants and we will be back soon enough to let you feed her."

Knowing she was beaten, the elder nodded, even though reluctantly.

"Be careful." the elder told them, before turning around and heading to the other rookery mothers who just talked amongst themselves with the hatchlings in their arms.

The rest of the clan began to leave, except for a few that had left the rookery already, knowing that it was time for the rookery mothers to care for their newest clan members.

"Thank you." Angela said to her big sister. "I don't think I could have convinced her."

"No need." Darlene replied smiling, while looking on her sisters.

****

09.08.98; 06:16; Castle Wyvern:

Darlene and Angela had successfully bathed and clothed the newest member of their seemingly ever increasing family when Broadway joined them, greeting his mate in a way which made her older sister more than a bit jealous of her.

When they were on their way back, they discovered Demona and Goliath in a seemingly very serious talk.

"Mother?" Angela, with the hatchling in her arms, spoke to her mother who hadn't noticed her yet.

Surprised at this, Demona turned her head around. For a moment, Angela could see a glimmer of joy in her mother's eyes, but it vanished, leaving just the usual coldness.

"Lucifia called us and we made a bargain." Goliath explained to them. "She won't attack us at our homes if we don't do this in her home."

"But we don't know where she lives." Broadway noticed startled. "Why should she do this?"

"To play with us." Demona informed her son in law in human terms, her voice as cold as her green eyes.

"Xanatos also has discovered some bugs that Lucifia installed here unnoticed for a time we can't emulate." Goliath added, looking into the shocked faces of his listeners. "I will speak about this with the clan assembly later."

"And I will check the mansion after them later..." Demona explained, crossing her arms to make this point clear, "…thoroughly."

A moment of silence followed, in which Darlene noticed the looks her mother threw on the hatchling in her arms, like she saw how the hatchling stretched out her tiny claws after the big gargoyle who had greeted her into this life.

"You can hold her." Darlene offered, taking a step closer to her mother. "I think she misses you."

Demona just shook her head and made no effort to do so, or just to touch the hatchling.

"No." she replied coldly and leaned against the wall, not looking to her children, but a place somewhere on the other wall of the floor with icy green eyes.

"Well, then you can you hold her later." Darlene tried again, more than a bit irritated of her mother's behavior. "When we glide home. She..."

"She will stay here." Demona told her daughter, as a matter of fact without even looking at her. "She is a child of the clan and I don't claim her as my own."

Darlene and Angela stared at their mother, unbelieving of what they had heard.

"What?" Darlene asked, not knowing what else to say.

"I never planned it any other way." her mother explained, not giving her a look, but noticing her shock, like she noticed Goliath being at first surprised and then letting his face become stoic again. "It is best."

"For whom?" Darlene demanded to know in an angry voice, not noticing that the hatchling in her arms had begun to whimper since she definitely disliked the loud voices and couldn't understand why the gargoyle in front of her didn't want to take her.

"For everybody." Demona replied, her voice still icy and emotionless.

"How can you simply abandon her?" Angela asked, more than shocked. She hadn't directly thought that her mother would take the hatchling with herself, but just the way her mother spoke made her shudder.

"She has all she will need here." Demona told her daughter, looking straight into her eyes. "And I will stay here as long as it takes until we have defeated Lucifia."

_Or until we die by this,_ she added mentally, but knew that there was no reason to speak it out loud.

Darlene stared at her mother and finally her eyes' turned to her... Eyes, which were hard, like the jade stones they looked like, and cold like a planet without a sun.

She wanted to say something, wanted to smash it into her mother's head that she couldn't simply leave this little life she had created alone, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do so. Not now, not after this night... maybe later when they could talk alone... later.

"You should take her to the rookery mothers." Demona noticed on the fact that the whimpering of the hatchling had increased to small cries, showing that she somehow wasn't happy with the situation. "I guess she is hungry."

Darlene stared at her mother an endless second, softly rocking the hatchling in her arms to calm her down. Beside her, Broadway laid a claw on his mate's shoulder, comforting her while he threw a hard look on his mother in law.

"May you at least give her a name?" she finally asked in resignation. "Or is even this too much?"

Demona's eyes wandered from Darlene to the unnamed hatchling that was her daughter and for a moment both eyes met. Both eyes were green, both had the same glimmer in them, but this was it, since the first pair of eyes showed innocent curiosity and softness, while the others were hard like emeralds and studied the others with the experience of an immortal life.

"Jaheira." Demona said finally, and this time her voice was, even though still hard, softer then before. "She shall be called Jaheira."

Goliath, whom his ex hadn't paid much attention to, nodded.

"So shall it be." the clan leader agreed, making clear that he would ensure that the clan would accept this.

"Well..." Angela began, knowing that there wasn't more to be told and sensing that her mother and her father had still some things to speak of. "I think we have to go now."

"I will be in the hatchlings room later..." Demona told the quartet who slowly moved away. "I owe them a story."

Angela nodded, while Darlene's eyes stayed centered on her mother accusingly all the way around her.

"I can't believe it." Angela exclaimed unbelieving when they had gone around a corner. "How can she do this to her?"

"I don't know," Darlene replied calmly, embracing the little hatchling in her arms a bit more, as if to protect her. "I really don't know."

"I mean every child needs parents." her younger sister continued, looking shortly to the newly named Jaheira.

"Maybe I can reach her later." Darlene told Angela, but even more to herself. "When we are alone... She should take at least a small place in her life."

"Maybe she shouldn't." Broadway stated from behind, much to the surprise of the two half-sisters.

"What?" Angela exclaimed unbelieving.

Broadway winced a bit by the looks that both gargesses gave him, but he knew that there was no way back now.

"I mean, Demona isn't the best person to raise a hatchling." he explained to them.

"She raised me." Darlene replied calmly on this statement of her brother in law. "And she was a great mother to me."

"Yes, and she was a great big sister for me and my siblings... once." he answered "But she isn't now."

The clan's cook saw the now hurt look in his mate's eyes and knew he had to say more.

"Look, I don't hate her, or still blame her for what happened 1000 years ago," Broadway said, "but you heard what she said tonight, how she is... she hasn't changed."

"She has," Angela insisted, "at least a bit, and a child belongs to its parents."

Her mate shook his head.

"She has the clan," Broadway reminded her, "which has been enough for every gargoyle before."

"And shall this be enough for our children?" Angela wanted to know.

Broadway looked damned unlucky on his mate.

Darlene noticed that the hatchling that was her youngest sister had begun to whimper slightly, sensing the tension in the air and knew that it was better to let her sister clear this with her mate alone.

"I'll take Jaheira to the rookery mothers." she told them "You can see us later."

Since neither of them answered, Darlene went away, slowly rocking the hatchling in her arms.

"So young and seen already so much trouble." she told the hatchling, looking in the emerald green eyes, which were so much like her mother's and yet so different. "Not the best greeting, is it?"

The hatchling seemingly hadn't mind the rough beginning of her life and looked up to the older gargoyle with wide-awake curiosity, a curiosity which had risen since the warm comfort of her first bath that had made her sleepiness go away, leaving a strange feeling in the hatchlings stomach.

By looking on the little life in her arms, Darlene felt a slight pain in her breast, but when she reached the doors to the rookery, the pain was gone even though a strange feeling remained.

The first thing Darlene noticed when she entered the rookery was that the whole room had been cleaned completely of the innards and the shells of the eggs. Then she noticed the dimmed light of the rookery, its intensity reduced to be closer of that of ordinary gargoyle rookeries and more friendly to the light-sensitive eyes of the newest clan members.

In the relative darkness, which was still as bright as the usual night seen by gargoyle-eyes, Darlene could see several rookery-mothers, nursing the clan's children, which had also been bathed and wore tiny loincloths now.

_This is it,_ Darlene began to realize.

Her mother had told her that at this time all grown-up female gargoyles became ready to nurse the hatchlings.

_Sure, this is it!_ She thought, remembering her risen hunger and the strange feelings she had felt. _I simply came into this period._

_Maybe nursing one of the hatchlings will help? _ Darlene thought. _If the rookery-moth..._

"Will you give her to me?" a voice in front of her asked.

Darlene looked up, being disturbed in her thoughts, seeing a rookery mother, maybe the leader of this group, looking impatiently on her.

"We needed a little longer." she explained, sensing the look in the older gargoyle's eyes. "We met the leader and my mother..." she smiled a bit, looking down to her little sister. "She named her Jaheira."

The frown on the rookery-mother's face, like on that of the other's, showed more than words could of what they thought of this.

"The leader approved this." Darlene quickly added.

A longer silence followed, but finally the female in front of her sighed, even though reluctantly.

"Aye," she replied simply, expressing the way she felt about this in one word.

A moment of silence followed.

"Where is your youngest hatchling?" the rookery mother asked somewhat carelessly, while she removed her top.

"I left Gem with Jarred." Darlene replied in the same distant tone. "He's watching over her."

The rookery-mother's eyes widened while Jaheira began, at first cautiously and then more and more demanding to suck on her breast.

"You left a young one to watch over her?" she asked, more than a bit shocked about this act by this gargess and asking herself if maybe the times with the humans had changed this gargoyle.

"I let her brother watch over her." Darlene replied, her tone being now just at the border to hardness. "He has done so before and I trust him. Besides, Lana is somewhere near him…" _And with her, half of the young males of the clan._ "…So there is no reason to worry."

The rookery mother studied the gargess in front of her a moment longer, then she nodded.

"Aye," she replied, sounding again not very convinced.

Darlene didn't care.

"I'll go to the hatchlings room now." she explained and turned around, leaving the rookery mothers to stare at her back.

_I don't believe it, _ Darlene thought when she stood on the floor. _How can she criticize me for the way I trust my children?_

Slowly, her mother's temper left her and she had to admit that the elder gargoyle hadn't directly criticized her, even though she had shown that it wasn't their way... or what she believed was the way of the clan to raise their young generation.

_I don't care,_ Darlene thought, slowly wandering through the floors in the direction of the hatchlings room, _as long as they don't try to interfere in my family._

And it didn't matter what her mother thought, as the little hatchling she had just left behind was part of this family.

Now fully assured, Darlene entered the hatchlings room.


	5. Epilog

**09.08.98; 07:23; Destine Manor:**

Demona, with Shade in her arms, and Darlene with her kids on her tail, landed in the garden of her mansion.

"That was cool!" Jarred stated at once. "How often...?"

He was stopped by Shade's loud growl.

Darlene and her children, even Gem, looked shocked at the beast with her blood-red eyes, while Demona was one step further, looking at the glass door of her mansion.

Before Darlene could say anything on this, her mother already went ahead, opening the door and entering with Shade following reluctantly.

Jarred was going to follow his grandmother, but his mother's claw on his shoulder stopped him?

"No." she told him, looking through the class door, at how her mother studied the room.

She didn't know what her mother was looking at, but what she had just gone through with Lucifia had made her cautious, especially with her children involved.

Maybe she has placed a bomb somewhere, Darlene guessed, maybe she just wants to blow the whole mansion up?

A part of her mind told her not to be paranoid, while the other told her that maybe it was worse.

It's a good thing that mother is immortal.

Then she saw her mother going to the hidden shelf in the wall, now open, and taking something.

Darlene's curiosity, one of her plenty heritage from her mother took over and she handed over Gem to her eldest daughter before following Demona in.

"Mother?" she asked the immortal.

Demona, who had been staring on the paper as if it had the answers on all questions in the world, looked up shortly, handing over Darlene the paper and then, speechless, moved into the direction of the stairs, her beast following.

Darlene stared on the paper, which was indeed a little letter consisting of just one sentence.

"_Dear Mother, next time I will bring the swords again."_

Darlene shuddered.

**09.08.98; 07:41; Hidden level under Demona's mansion:**

Demona stared at an opponent, which didn't exist, swinging her sword, a katana, in a way she had once learned in a country far away. She liked these secret rooms beneath her mansion, more than she had ever liked the mansion itself because it was distant to the noises of the human world. She liked this room, which allowed her to relax in a special way, after days of dealing with humans again.

Watched by her loyal gargbeast, even when the immortal didn't notice her in her concentration, she launched a final attack on the non-existent opponent, digging the sword into the stony ground of the training room, imaging to go through its... _her_ stomach.

Such she stayed, kneeling down on one leg on the earth, the other near her fast moving breast, her eyes closed and all her senses as sharp as ever in a battle. It was these senses, which sensed someone coming nearer, hearing the claw-steps, even feeling the little vibration in the earth and smelling...

Demona stopped for a second, smelling something strange, but nevertheless familiar with her sensitive nose. But then it was gone and she just smelled the scent of a gargoyle that she knew very well.

The immortal warrior held her position and didn't open her eyes, hoping foolishly that she would go away.

"Mother?"

Demona suppressed a growl of frustration and opened her eyes, looking up to Darlene standing at the entrance of the training room.

"What?" the immortal asked with the hint of a snarl.

"We have to talk." Darlene replied calmly, ignoring her mother's hostile tone, knowing that this night had left its mark on her.

Demona looked on her biologically eldest child for a second, then she sighed in frustration.

"About what?" she asked calmly, as she placed the katana back on its place on the wall.

Darlene had at least 1000 questions to ask her mother, most in which a certain gargoyle called Lucifia took place, but since she felt that dawn was near, she concentrated on the closest.

"What shall we do now?" she began. "With Lucifia out there?"

Demona crossed her arms.

"We have to wait until Lucifia makes her next move," she admitted, her voice making clear how much she hated this.

"Is this all we can do?" Darlene asked, even when in her heart she had come to such a solution on their flight back to the mansion, when she had searched in the shadows of houses and dark alleys for signs of her dark sister.

"I will bring a detector from my lab to search the mansion for bugs." Demona replied.

Darlene frowned, as she had forgotten about her mother's bugs and that most likely they were eavesdropping at this moment, like the whole time before.

"Can we speak openly?" she asked, trying not to look around since she knew that she most likely wouldn't see the bugs.

Demona nodded.

"If it is important." she explained.

"Mother," Darlene began, "could you stay home?"

On the critical look of her mother, she continued quickly.

"At least for the day." she explained. "The children and I would feel more secure."

"I could order one of my employees to bring me the detector." Demona replied.

"Thank you." Darlene said with a warm smile.

Her mother replied this by shaking her head.

"I can't protect you and the children, Darlene." she revealed. "Even if I'm here the whole day."

"You think she is flesh by day?" Darlene asked.

"I don't know." Demona replied openly. "But she could just order someone to attack for her, or..."

Frustrated, the immortal shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know."

Darlene looked at her mother and saw, for a moment, helplessness in her mother's eyes... or maybe it was just her own feelings reflected. She had never feared dawn and the stone-sleep in her whole life, but this time she would.

"Anything else?" her mother asked emotionless.

"Lana." Darlene began anew.

"What about her?" Demona wanted to know.

"She needs training." her daughter explained.

"I've been telling you this for six months." Demona noted.

"There was no reason to force her to do that, until now." Darlene replied, knowing that her mother was at least partly right. "But things have changed and I would feel better if Lana would at least know the basics of self-defense."

Demona nodded.

"I can do it after Jarred's magic lessons." she explained, but Darlene shook her head. "I would prefer it that one of the Manhattan clan does so."

Her mother's look said more than anything of what she thought of this.

"Why?" she asked icily.

"Because she needs friends." Darlene replied. "There are plenty gargoyles of her own age in the clan, but it will need time for her to come in contact with them."

And I will make her whether she wants to or not. she added mentally, being fully aware of how _happy_ her eldest daughter would be when she told her this.

Darlene had somehow expected resistance from her mother about the idea to let both her grandchildren be trained by the clan, but instead she just gave her a nod, not even looking to her, but somewhere ahead of her.

Okay, Darlene thought.

"I will look after the children for the morning." she told her mother.

Her mother didn't react, but stared ahead.

"Mom!" Darlene exclaimed louder.

This brought Darlene her mother's attention and Demona looked on her with tired green eyes.

"You know, you can always talk to me." she reminded her. "To me, Angela, or your sister... You're not alone."

Her mother replied this with a half-hearty nod, looking back to the wall.

Darlene sighed, knowing that the night hadn't enough time left to try a new conversation, and went off, leaving her mother alone.

Demona stayed in her position seconds after Darlene had left, her mind not really focussed on anything.

"_...You're not alone." _

Her daughter's voice rang through Demona's head, but they sounded meaningless, far away.

Suddenly, she felt something warm and damp touching her left claw and looking down surprised. She saw Shade standing by her side, licking her friend's claw as if to bring her back to this world.

It had actually worked.

Demona gave the scarred beast one of her rare smiles, even when it was a very weak one and knelt down, stroking Shade the way she knew the beast liked it, which she replied through loud purring.

She did so until sunrise robbed her of this companion, leaving her alone in the darkness of her cellar and her pain.

**To be continued...**


End file.
